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Hospitalized Cancer Patients' Perceptions of Individualized Nursing Care in Four European Countries

As patients are different, only one way of delivering care is neither appropriate nor efficient. Care needs to be tailored according to individual characteristics in more general and extents to include individualized nursing care. Individualized care has a positive impact on patient outcomes and is therefore worth of studies and implementation in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to describe and compare hospitalized cancer patients' perceptions of individualized care, controlled by their socio-demographic characteristics, in four European countries. The quality of individualized nursing care was represented by hospitalized patients' perceptions of the (1) nurses' support of individuality and (2) receipt of individuality as measured by the two-part Individualized Care Scale (ICS). Patients' socio-demographic characteristicsincluded education, age, gender, type of hospital admission, previous hospitalization, and hospital length of stay. Data (n=599) were collected in Cyprus (n=150), Finland (n=158), Greece (n=150) and Sweden (n=141). Multivariate analysis of variance models were constructed. The main effect of country on perceptions of individualized care was analyzed using socio-demographic characteristics as covariates. The level of support of individuality was reported as moderate and receipt of individuality on care as good. The assessments were generally the highest by the respondents in Sweden and the lowest in Greece. Shortcomings in the individualized nursing care were found based on patients' assessments. This study revealed some between-country differences in patients' perceptions of care individualization, controlled by the sample characteristics, and allows the researcher to further analyze the possible reasons for these differences whether conceptual, differences due to the education, clinical practice or organization of nursing care and services