Nurses' Presence at the Patient Bedside: Challenges Experienced by Nurses

Background: Nursing presence is one of the important dimensions of care. The presence of nurses improves the outcome of treatment, self-care, satisfaction and reduces patients' loneliness and anxiety. The literature review shows that most studies have conducted on concept analysis of the nursing presence while nurses face many challenges to present at the patient bedside. The study aimed to identify the challenges of nurses' presence at patients' bedside from the perspective of nurses. Methods: This is a qualitative content analysis study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nineteen nurses. Data analysis performed using Zhang's eight stages approach. Results: Three categories emerged: (1) professional challenges with sub-categories: shortage of medical staff, improperly scheduled visits and rounds, time-consuming supervision, inadequate competence, and cultural unfamiliarity, (2) job attenuation with sub-categories: ignoring the needs of nurses, inappropriate management styles (3) unsuitable environment with sub-categories: inadequate medical facilities, ward congestion, and non-standard hospital environment. Conclusions: This study identified the challenges and barriers of nurses' presence at the patient's bedside in different dimensions from the clinical nurses' perspective. Nursing managers must adopt appropriate strategies to solve the challenges of nurses' presence at patients' bedside to achieve the positive benefits of the more effective nurses' presence at patients' bedside.