A comparison of patient needs as ranked by patients and nurses

A group of patients (n = 69) were asked to arrange the three most important of 10 groups of needs, identified by patients in a previous study, in order of priority from one to three. A group of nurses (n = 89) were asked to arrange same groups of needs in order of priority from one to three according to how they believed patients would rank them. No significant differences were found between patients cared for at medical and at surgical wards or between nurses working at different departments. However, differences were found between the rankings of patients and nurses.