'Accompany the sick' (pei ban): A unique practice in Chinese hospitals by patients' relatives and friends

Abstract

There is a practice commonly found in many Chinese hospitals called ‘accompany the sick’ (pei ban). It means that many patients’ relatives or friends ‘live’ with patients in the hospital. Such practice can benefit patients in that the visitors are providing psychological support and carrying out some bedside nursing care to the patients. However, it also creates many problems to nurses and hospitals such as overcrowding, an over-demand of hospital resources, and maintaining quality care. There is no study of such practice. In order to gain better understanding of ‘accompany the sick’, its impact on nursing practice and nursing professional development, identifying the contributing factors of such practice is needed. This is an ethnographic case study of a public hospital in western China. The study has discovered a number of factors that contribute to the practice, such as the Chinese concept of duty of care, the geographic and economic situation, and the unique culture of nursing practice. This is a pilot study and the result of this study will contribute to further study in nurses’ work in China.