Abstract
Background:
A large part of the work a nurse conducts at a Primary Care Centre consists of counselling patients over the phone. The patients are sorted and prioritised on the basis of these conversations.
Aim:
The aim of this study is to describe how the patients experience the caring relationship with the nurse during phone counselling at a Primary Care Centre.
Method:
In-dept interviews were conducted with ten adult Swedish speaking persons who contacted a nurse at two Medical Care Centres, during a two week period.
Results:
The patients experienced that they received a good caring relationship with the nurses. This meant to be treated friendly, be taken seriously and to be able to have a dialog about their problems with the nurse. They wanted to feel unique, empowered and treated as individuals. They could sometimes feel disappointed when an unbalance occurred between the expectations of the patients and the advice they received. Nurses that were stressed influenced the caring relationship in a negative way.
Conclusions:
Overall the patients experienced a good caring relationship with the nurses, but the nurses were not always aware of how they where perceived.