What is Person-Centred Care? A Qualitative Inquiry into Oncology Staff and Patient and Family Experience of Person-Centred Care.

Introduction: To investigate the understanding and practice of person-centred care by health care professionals and support staff at a cancer centre and to learn how patients and family members understand and experience person-centred care.

Methods: The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 used large wall mounted posters and marking pens in public areas of the cancer centre to gather comments from staff, volunteers, students, patients, family members, and visitors to answer the question, "What does person-centred care mean to you?" Phase 2 used a six-question, open-ended, paper-based questionnaire for staff and patients. A manual coding technique was used to derive themes from both posters and questionnaires.

Results: We derived 97 themes from the posters and 134 themes from 44 returned questionnaires (survey response rate of 37%). When the themes were combined and reprioritized, we learned that person-centred care is: (1) care that is caring, compassionate, and empathetic; (2) person or patient is the centre of focus; (3) care is unique to the individual's needs; and (4) person or patient is a part of their care. Furthermore, all staff should provide person-centred care.

Conclusions: Our findings describe what our staff, patients, and family members believe person-centred care is, and how it should be delivered. Based on this research study, we recommend promoting additional dialogue and continuing education opportunities for health care professionals and other front-line staff who will assist them to complete the statement, "I demonstrate person-centred care by…" to their own satisfaction in the future.