Importance of Information, Education and Communication Aspects of Nursing Care Services towards Patient Satisfaction: Evidence From a Prospective Study in Central India

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is one of the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of health care service delivery and clinical effectiveness. The information, education and communication aspects of nursing care are the major attributes of patient satisfaction and complement the quality assurance and determine the success of the health care system from a patient centric point of view. This study was aimed at assessing the patient satisfaction level towards selected aspects of nursing care services in surgical areas of a tertiary care hospital of central India using a tool developed in-house. It also explored the association of the patient satisfaction level with selected demographic variables of patients. A non-experimental cross-sectional prospective study design was adopted. Non-probabilistic pragmatic sampling technique was used to collect data from 200 patients. A standardised Structured Patient Satisfaction Rating Scale was used for data collection. Patient satisfaction was measured in terms of Information, Education and Communication aspects of nursing care services. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyses the data. Overall 89.5 percent patients were satisfied towards the selected aspects of nursing care services. A statistically significant association was found between clinical care setting, duration of hospital stay and occupation with patient satisfaction level. Innovative strategies like good practices for health care communication and soft skills workshop may be incorporated in the induction and in-service training module of nursing professionals which ultimately lead to the enhanced patient satisfaction and improvement in the quality of nursing care services.