Patient Discharge Surveys



Patient Discharge Surveys

Introduction

In general, patients ask for more information than they receive and generally it is for more individualised information. Relevant information delivered in a way that brings understanding is important for both patients and relatives. The significance of patient education before hospital admission, tests, and treatment is well documented with regard to its positive effect on satisfaction with care, psychological distress, and length of stay. The need to improve the information given at discharge is documented in several studies. In Norway, it is prescribed by law that patients have the right to receive information about their health status and treatment choices. Norwegian studies on patients' view on their hospital stay have repeatedly reported the least satisfaction with information and communication with discharge information receiving the lowest score(Tierney, 2000, 859-60).

Most of the patient education before and after contact with the hospital is in the form of written information. A key issue is whether this is understandable to patients and their relatives. Understanding is decreased by difficult language, if it does not correspond with patients' current knowledge level, and when too much information is in a small font size and lack of space between information

Research Objectives

Conducting surveys is considering the following general objectives(Naylor, 1999, 613-20):

How do TUR-patients judge the information received while hospitalised?

What are TUR-patients' views on interaction between the nurses and the patients?

What are TUR-patients' perceptions about how to take care of themselves after discharge?

Methodology and Data Collection

The Patient Information and Nurse Interaction Scale (PINI) was used. This investigator-developed scale is based on some items from our previous studies plus new items specifically related to discharge(Martens, 1998, 341-8). The items express different opinions, feelings and knowledge related to the information received (10 items) and the nurses' interaction with patients (11 items). The response format is a scale from 1-10; the anchoring points are strong disagreement (1) and strong agreement (10). Positively and negatively phrased items were mixed in order to insure that the patients did not respond without careful reading and thought. Eleven items were positively phrased; for example, The nurses made me feel well prepared for what I was going through and 10 were negatively phrased; for example, I was uncertain about how to manage when I left the hospital. Information was also collected about when the patient received the booklet and how it was used and valued after returning home(Shuldham, 2001, 129-37). For these 12 items, the patients were asked to place a check mark on those items that were true, furthermore, to respond to open questions about the booklet's relevance and any suggestions for changes in content. In addition, the head nurse collected demographic data and some clinical information from the medical record. The survey, with a stamped and pre-addressed envelope was sent home 1 week after discharge to the consenting patients.

Method of Analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and Chi-square and t-tests were used where appropriate to examine the data. The significance level was set at p = ...