Holistic nursing care model was the most common and effective model in nursing care. The Ministry of Health of Vietnam has promulgated the regulations on holistic nursing care as a part of hospitals’ regulation in 1997. This study is a description – survey oriented research. It investigates the current status on holistic nursing care and explores perception on holistic nursing care between nurses and patients. The aim of the study was to identify (1) the relationship between holistic nursing care and nurses characteristics; (2) the relationship between holistic nursing care and patients characteristics; and (3) the perception on holistic nursing care between the nurses and patients. The study adopted questionnaire in data collection. A convenience sample was 238 nurses, who are nurses taking care of patients at medical departments and 420 patients with level II patients who are being treated at medical departments. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows (version 13) was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were significant differences in perceptions on holistic nursing care between nurses and patients. The mean score of nurses’ perception was higher than patients’ perception. The results suggested that the patient was unsatisfied with nursing care on holistic nursing care. The main reasons were lacking medical equipment and devices; lacking beds for the patient to lie down; lacking facilities serving for the patient’s daily living activities; and lacking a board of indicating hospital policies, regulations, and health information for patients and their families; limiting health education for patients and referring to social organizations to support the patient care. In addition, nurses need to explain procedures clearly and frequently monitor the patient.
