Patients define value of pre-op information
(This is the second part of a two-part series on communicating with patients preoperatively on the Internet. Last month, we told you what information to offer, how to present it, what support you need, and what a Web site can’t do for you. This month, we tell you how to ensure the information you give patients is valuable.)
Including pre-op information on your surgery program’s Web site might seem like the answer to improving communications with your patients, but how do you know what patients really want to hear in their pre-op teaching?
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston uses e-mail messages, patient satisfaction survey forms, and comments to nurses to evaluate information in the pre-op information section of its Web site, says Denise M. Goldsmith, RN, MS, MPH, program manager of nursing informatics. "We started the Web site with the general information we already had in our handouts, but we’ll get messages such as I didn’t realize I would urinate so often,’ so we collect the information and add it to the Web site as appropriate."
Bay Care Health System in Green Bay, WI, also uses feedback from same-day surgery patients to update information on the pre-op information Web site, says Tammy Krueger, BSN, LNC, executive director of Bay Care Ambulatory Services.
Procedural information is considered important by patients, but mundane items such as directions to the facility, information about parking, and location of the admissions’ area within the building are probably the most valuable, says Krueger. "I also can’t emphasize [enough] the value of maps and written directions that patients can print out and hold in their hands." Maps and directions to the facility are the most frequently mentioned benefit of the Web site, she adds.
The same-day surgery staff at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston don’t have a pre-op information Web site. However, they wanted to find out what information patients valued, so they asked them. In a study that surveyed 100 patients undergoing same-day surgery, staff contacted patients on the day of surgery to ask if they were willing to participate in the study, then interviewed the participants at the surgical follow-up visit that occurred five to 10 days after surgery. "Basically, we wanted to find out what pre-op teaching information the patient could recall and what information was most valuable," explains Mary Jane Bernier, RN, PhD, assistant clinical professor of the School of Nursing at the University of Texas and co-investigator of the study. "Our survey tool was patterned after a similar tool used to measure patient and nurse perceptions of pre-op teaching in an inpatient setting," she says.1 "Even with our modifications to apply the tool to an outpatient setting, the results were similar."
When asked procedural questions such as, "Before surgery did the nurse review the type of surgery you were having?" 92% of the patients recalled receiving the information. Only 87% recalled receiving information related to their role in surgery, such as not eating before surgery or asking for assistance after surgery, adds Bernier.
When asked to describe the value of pre-op information, patients identified information regarding their role as most valuable, followed by procedural information, then psychosocial information such as addressing concerns and worries.
The most surprising finding was that men tended to value psychosocial information more than women, says Bernier. "We assumed women would have more concerns and worries that they would want to discuss with a nurse, but we discovered that men considered this more valuable."
Skills to help during recovery were recalled by 55% of patients interviewed. "When we asked if nurses helped them practice deep breathing or if they were told to expect different sensations such as lightheadedness, they said they didn’t recall but would have valued that information," she says.
Reference
1. Yount B, Schossler J. A description of patient and nursing perceptions of preoperative teaching. Journal of Post Anesthesia Nursing 1991; 6:17-25.
For more information about pre-op information’s value to patients, contact:
• Mary Jane Bernier, RN, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Nursing, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555-1020. Telephone: (409) 772-8249. Fax: (409) 772-8323. E-mail: [email protected].
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