PATIENTS’ PREFERENCE FOR NURSES’ GENDER IN NURSING CARE AT THE KOMFO ANOKYE TEACHING HOSPITAL, KUMASI

ABSTRACT Accommodating patients‘ preference for nurses‘ gender in health care is vital in the provision of patient centred care and ensuring patient satisfaction and better health outcome. The study aimed at exploring patients‘ preference for nurses‘ gender in nursing care at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi. Rooted in the Rational Choice Theory, the study adopted and used the qualitative exploratory descriptive design. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling technique. A semi-structured interview guide was used to elicit information from 14 participants. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis and five main themes emerged. The study noted that: patients had a varying preference for nurses but gender was not particularly significant in patients‘ preferences for nurses. It was rather found that patients‘ preferences were determined by their wellbeing, disease condition, type of care, religion, the attitude of nurses and hospital policy. However, nurses of the same gender were preferred for intimate procedures to ensure privacy and satisfaction. The additional result that emerged outside the constructs of RCT revealed that: the majority of nurses had a bad attitude towards patients, male nurses were labelled as unsuitable for nursing. However, participants indicated the need to increase male nurses in the nursing profession. It was recommended that it would be ideal to match patients with the preferred nurses to ensure patient satisfaction, though most health care systems do not have adequate capacity to satisfy patients‘ preference and have not factored patients‘ preference into health care policies. Therefore, it may be essential that health policy makers factor patients‘ preferences into health policy. Future research has been recommended to centre on the preference of women for the gender of their midwives in Ghana to inform the continued training of male midwives or otherwise since the training of male midwives in Ghana has come to a halt.