To Örebro University

OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe how healthcare professionals within the oncological outpatient setting perceive quality of care.

DESIGN: A qualitative, descriptive design with a phenomenographic approach was used, with focus group discussions as the means of data collection.

SETTING: Primary care in oncological outpatient units in four hospitals in Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS: Through purposive sampling, 20 healthcare professionals entered and completed the study by participating in four focus groups, five participants in each group. Inclusion criteria were assistant nurses, nurses or physicians delivering treatment and care with radiation and/or anticancer drugs in oncological outpatient units. Excluded were healthcare professionals who had worked less than 3 months at the oncological outpatient unit.

RESULTS: Two descriptive categories emerged from the data: 'The professional's personal ability for good care' and 'The structural conditions for good care'. These categories consist of descriptions of quality of care being perceived as a good meeting with patients, patient participation, continuity, accessibility and care grounded in science.

CONCLUSIONS: According to the healthcare professionals, quality of care relies on organisational structures in combination with a professional and personal interaction between the patients and the healthcare professionals. Knowledge about what healthcare professionals believe constitutes quality of care should therefore be highly valuable to policymakers and hospital management.

PURPOSE: To describe how patients receiving cancer treatment perceive quality of care in the oncological outpatient settings.

METHOD: A strategic sample of 20 adult patients with cancer treated in four oncological outpatient settings in four hospitals in Sweden participated in the study. Participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions. The interviews were audio-recorded, and the transcripts were analysed using a phenomenographic approach.

RESULTS: Three descriptive categories emerged from the data: The patient's care is designed to meet individual needs, The patient's dignity is respected, and The patient feels safe and secure with the care. Overall, quality of care in the oncological outpatient setting is perceived as something positive and described in normative terms by the participants.

CONCLUSION: The results emphasises that in order to achieve quality of care it is important to the patients that they are able to meet with the same well-educated, professional, caring and sensible health care professionals every time.