Identifying barriers and facilitators to seeking care for symptoms of bacterial sepsis: A qualitative study.
Felicia Ruffin, Elizabeth Van Horn, Laurie Kennedy-Malone and 1 others
PMID 37632254WHAT IT FOUND
Patients who delayed seeking care at least 24 hours said they did not recognize infection symptoms, waited for symptoms to fade, relied on family, worried about cost, or faced transport and outpatient delays.
Key findings
01Participants grouped barriers and facilitators into three themes: symptom recognition, psychosocial support, and healthcare planning and coordination.
02A major barrier was not recognizing infection symptoms, including mistaking them for chronic conditions.
03Family support was often perceived as a facilitator, and healthcare planning issues shaped help seeking.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Ten patients were recruited from one site by convenience sampling, so these themes may not represent other sepsis populations. Interviews occurred within 6 months of diagnosis, so patients may have misremembered details. Non-English speakers, patients with mental status changes, and hospital-acquired infections were excluded. All participants had some insurance, so the study says little about uninsured patients. Most participants were women and many were retired or disabled, so work and caregiving barriers may be underrepresented. No intervention was tested, so the paper does not show that addressing these barriers improves care or outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest. The work was supported by NIH grant 5K24AI093969.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these barriers as proof that patient education will reduce sepsis delays. The study interviewed 10 patients about past experiences and tested no intervention.