The significance of patient participation in nursing care – a concept analysis

Objective: The purpose of this study was to report on a concept analysis of the meaning of patients’ participation. Participation is commonplace in many areas of health care and has become an important issue in healthcare services. Participation is essential when giving nursing care. Challenges exist throughout clinical practice to make the patient a participant in their own care. The study had a caring science perspective. Method: A literature study based on Walker and Avant’s method was used with eight steps. Data were collected using several databases covering the years 1995–2017. The analysis covered fifteen articles, dissertations, reports and textbooks.Findings: Patients’ participation may be defined as a concept that relates to and includes the three caring science concepts: learning, caring relationship and reciprocity (defining attributes). Conclusion: Participation is a concept with vague meaning that is prevalent in nursing practice. Patients’ participation is a complex concept. By using the attributes, it could be more visible in nursing care. The next question for research in this area is how these three attributes can best practically be achieved in a clinical context.