Investigation of basic needs of geriatric patients in ward for high-ranking cadres

Objective To determine the importance and satisfaction of the basic needs of geriatric patients and their related factors.Methods A total of 96 geriatric patients were investigated with a scale that was designed according to Maslow' s hierarchy-of-needs theory. The survey content included general characteristic and the importance of basic needs and the satisfaction.Results On the importance of the basic needs,the physiological and the safety needs scored the highest ( 9.40 ± 0.83,9.67 ± 0.87 ) and the social needs and the esteem needs followed (7.17 ± 2.47,6.19 ± 2.53),the self-actualization needs scored the lowest (3.58 ± 2.27 ) ; On the satisfaction of the basic needs,the safety needs scored the lowest (2.54 ±0.94).The importance of the physiological needs,safety needs,social needs and aesthetic needs were not related to their satisfactions ( P ＞ 0.05 ),while the importance of the esteem needs cognition needs and the actualization needs were negatively related to their satisfactions (r =-0.435,-0.535,-0.610,respectively;P ＜ 0.05 ).The importance of physiological need was positively related with age ( r =0.225,P ＜ 0.05 ) ;satisfaction of safe need was negatively related with age ( r =- 0.264,P ＜ 0.05 ),however,positively related with education degree ( r =0.254,P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions The characteristic of the basic needs of the geriatric patients should be paid attention.Nurses should satisfy not only the physiological needs and the safety needs,but also the higher level needs according to the characteristic of the needs of different geriatric patients. Key words: Geriatric patients;  Basic needs;  Importance;  Satisfaction;  High-ranking cadres; Hospitalized patients