The patient experience of ward-based nursing care: Reconciling multiple perspectives

As the nurse role becomes more specialised, leaving the healthcare assistant (HCA) to deliver much of the direct care, questions arise about the nature of the HCA-patient relationship. Do HCAs have a distinctive relationship with patients and what form does this take? Addressing these questions, the paper explores the perceptions of different actors with a stake in this relationship using a multi-methods approach. What is the contribution made by different research techniques to an understanding of the relationship?