Rural patients' satisfaction with humanistic nursing care in Chinese Public Tertiary Hospitals: a national cross-sectional study

Older adults, widowed individuals, and first-time patients expressed lower levels of satisfaction, highlighting the need for tailored interventions. The findings provide insights into the impact of humanistic nursing care for rural patients and emphasize the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to improve patient satisfaction in rural China. This study has several limitations. The cross-sectional design restricts the ability to establish causal relationships, and there is a potential for selection bias, as participants who completed the survey may have higher educational and economic levels, possibly leading to an overestimation of satisfaction. Lastly, as this study focused on rural patients in large public tertiary hospitals in China, the findings may not be generalizable to other settings or patient groups. Future studies should address these limitations for broader applicability and insight.