Patients' expectations and experiences of provided surgery-related patient education: A descriptive longitudinal study.
Katrín Blöndal, Herdís Sveinsdóttir, Brynja Ingadottir
PMID 35666048WHAT IT FOUND
Surgical patients were largely satisfied with education but still wanted more information on pain management, fatigue, stamina and expected recovery time up to 6 months after discharge.
Key findings
01Most patients were satisfied with surgery-related education: 93.7% at discharge, 75.8% at 6 weeks and 81.0% at 6 months.
02At the 6-month questionnaire, the topics patients wanted more information on most often were pain (24.5%), lack of stamina (24.9%) and fatigue (22.0%).
03Patients who said recovery was as expected were more often satisfied with discharge education: 350 patients who expected recovery versus 45 who did not at 6 weeks, and 289 versus 55 at 6 months.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The questions were purpose-designed and not validated, so the study may not measure patient education consistently. Data were not analysed by surgical speciality, although the sample included orthopaedic, general, cardiothoracic, urological and vascular surgery. Many patients did not answer all three questionnaires, and reasons for dropout were not collected. Answers about topics received were collected 6 weeks and 6 months after surgery, so recall may affect them. Patients were asked different topics at different time points, so change over time cannot be directly compared. The study was done in two hospitals in Iceland, so results may not apply to other settings. The study reports patient experiences and associations, not whether education improved recovery.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that better education caused a smoother recovery. The study only found that patients who said their recovery was as expected were more often satisfied with discharge education; it did not test an education intervention.