What benefits patients? - An inquiry into the opinions of psychiatric inpatients and their residents

Over 300 psychiatric inpatients and their residents responded to a questionnaire eliciting their views concerning the degree of benefit derived by patients from each of 20 aspects of the inpatient experience in a university hospital psychiatric service. Three major trends emerged: (1.) Patients consistently attributed greater benefit to all aspects of the hospital experience than did residents. (2.) Despite the difference in peerceived absolute benefit, patients and residents showed a high degree of agreement regarding the relative benefit of the items examined (i.e., which items were most beneficial and which were less so). (3.) Views of the hospital were found to vary as a function of patient diagnosis and primary treatment modality.