EFFECT OF WRITTEN INFORMATION AND REASSURANCE ON PATIENT SATISFACTION, ANXIETY, AND INTENT TO RETURN FOR EMERGENCY CARE.
Contributors: University of San Diego.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 126
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: Patients' satisfaction is one of the primary goals of emergency department (ED) providers today. As emergency departments are overcrowded, stressful environments, anxious patients want to be kept informed. Nurses have the opportunity to meet these needs and possibly influence the patients' perception of the experience and intent to return for future care. This study examined the effects of providing written information and reassurance on patient satisfaction, anxiety, and intent to return for emergency care.

The design was a posttest design involving a comparison between the control and three experimental groups. Two hundred and forty patients participated in the study, approximately 60 per group. All subjects were asked to rate their level of anxiety on arrival and discharge from the ED, complete the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale, and the Intent to Return scale.

There were no statistically significant differences among the four groups (p $<$.05). Patient satisfaction scores and intent to return scores were high. Anxiety scores were low. Implications and recommendations from this study were made for nursing research, clinical practice, need to conduct qualitative research on patient activity in the ED setting. Instruments measuring anxiety and satisfaction in the ED setting need to be developed and refined. Nursing interventions to improve the quality of the ED experience need to be identified and tested.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: B, page: 2474.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO, 1996.

School code: 6260.