Experience of Conducting a Group Patient Education Program at a Tertiary Hospital in Riyadh

Abstract

Introduction: Patient education plays an essential role in improving patient compliance with treatment. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the healthcare educators’ and the patients’ and their companions’ satisfaction and experience with regard to the health education program conducted during their waiting period in the outpatient department (OPD) at King Fahad Medical City. Moreover, compliance with planned educational topics was also assessed. Methods: A pre-post interventional study, including patients and their companions as well as health educators in the waiting rooms of the various OPDs, was conducted. The pre-intervention phase involved group teaching sessions, followed by a survey that assessed patient and educator satisfaction and experience as well as compliance rate. Then, a loophole identification survey was conducted to determine the drawbacks based on which group teaching procedure was modified. Post-intervention, a modified teaching session was completed. Results: A total of 4,362 patients and their companions participated in this study, along with 22 health educators. During the pre-intervention phase, the patient and their companions reported a 78% satisfaction rate for the conducted patient and family educational activities. While, after improving the group teaching process, the satisfaction rates increased to 90% in the post-intervention phase. The health educators’ satisfaction rate improved remarkably from 27.3% to 86.4%. Discussion/Conclusion: By incorporating simple modifications in the educational activities, a higher satisfaction rate might be achieved among the participants and the health educators.