2023 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 97-110
This study aimed to examine the observational characteristics of expert home-visiting nurses’ eye movements. These characteristics were compared with novice home-visiting nurses and nursing students. There were three groups of female participants: 1) expert home-visiting nurses, 2) novice home-visiting nurses, and 3) nursing students. Eight photographs from two home-visit cases were created from the data of a typical home-visit nursing service recipient in Japan. The participants were instructed to observe the photographs for 10 seconds and imagine the scene as if it was a home visit they were conducting for the first time. The participants’ eye movements were measured using an eye tracker. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the three groups. Expert home-visiting nurses had a shorter total eye scanning length. The fixation count for “patients’ face and clothes” was significantly greater for expert nurses than nursing students; it was the longest among the three groups. Moreover, expert nurses consistently paid attention to the patients during the observation period. This study implies that eye movements when observing home visit photographs may show the characteristics of person-centered care practice. This study would help novice nurses and nursing students learn from expert nurses by examining their eye movements, which reflects how they observe and provide optimal care to patients during home visits.
