The effect of e-health information on nurse-patient encounters: Mutual feelings and perceptions

Patients commonly search for e-health information about their illnesses which may be drawn from sites with varying reliability, and might contradict treatment recommendations. The present study was an early phase study that examined nurses’ and patients’ feelings and perceptions after an encounter with patients who present e-health information. Altogether 87 nurses and 118 patients answered a scenario-based questionnaire, in which patients presented nurses with e-health information of varying reliability that contradicted the nurse’s own treatment recommendations. Respondents were asked to appraise their own feelings (control, comfort and knowledge expertise) in such a situation and how they thought their role-partner would feel in such a situation (nurses about patients; patients about nurses). The results show that regardless of the information reliability, the nurses thought that they would feel more positive than the patients, while patients thought they would feel less positive than the nurse. Positive correlations were found between nurses’ feelings and their expectations of patients feelings. The same was not true for patients. In conclusion, both parties agreed that the nurse’s response would be more positive than the patients. However, when appraising patient’s reactions and feelings, nurses expressed an egocentric bias.