Experience Of Waiting Research Articles

Wait time reality check: The convergence of process, perception, and expectation

There are few experiences as ubiquitous to patients as the experience of waiting. It is an occurrence that transcends diagnosis, is common to all demographics, and is shared across the continuum of care. The experience can be frustrating and full of ambiguity for patients and their families. Wait time and delays can lead to patients sensing a loss of control and magnify the feelings of anxiety they may already be suffering. In an effort to improve patient experience, a framework was developed to examine patient satisfaction as a function of expectations, perceptions, and reality. The process domain focused on the objective reality of the pre-surgical lead times; while the expectation and perception domains focused on the family understanding of the timeliness of the pre-surgical process prior to, and directly following the experience. Guided by this framework, data was collected and analyzed at surgical units throughout the Texas Children’s Hospital system. Insights gained from this analysis identified distinct needs where focused improvement approaches could be implemented. Throughout this paper, we will provide insight into the framework developed, case studies illustrating its effectiveness and insights as to how it can be applied at any healthcare organization to improve patient satisfaction.

The Online Waiting Experience: Using Temporal Information and Distractors to Make Online Waits Feel Shorter

Research on how to manage the online waiting experience has begun to emerge but has primarily focused on the use of distracting cues for online wait management (e.g., text and images that distract the user from the wait). The use of temporal information in waiting webpages (e.g., text and images that convey the duration of the wait) has received little attention from the information systems literature, and we have limited understanding about how the two types of cues (temporal information and distractors) affect wait time estimation. We address this gap by developing a theoretical model of how these cues affect the waiting experience and perceived waiting time. We tested the model with a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 controlled lab experiment and 1025 participants using progress bar treatments that included temporal information (spatial and text description of the wait time duration) and distractors (progress bar animation and accelerated filling of the progress bar) with both short and long wait conditions. We found that the two types of cues reduced perceived waiting time through different nomological paths. Temporal cues reduced perceived uncertainty about the wait, while distractor cues directed attention away from the wait, increasing perceived enjoyment and wait time distortion. Further, the enhanced waiting experience reduced the perceived waiting time. Further, these cues were effective in managing the online waiting experience with both short and long waits.

Passivity, being-with and being-there: care during birth.

This paper examines how to best be with women during birth, based on a phenomenological description of the birth experience. The first part of the paper establishes birth as an uncanny experience, that is, an experience that is not only entirely unfamiliar, but even unimaginable. The way in which birth happens under unknowable circumstances (in terms of when, how, with whom…) creates a set of anxieties on top of the fundamental anxiety that emerges from the existential paradox by which it does not seem possible for a body to give birth to another body. Would homebirth provide a remedy to the uncanniness? The result yielded by medical studies is confirmed by the phenomenological perspective taken here: homebirth might be reassuring for some, but not for everybody; choice of birth place is important. Once the birth process starts happening, another layer of strangeness is added: it turns out to be an experience of radical passivity and waiting, normally. The question thus becomes how to best care for somebody who is exposed to uncanniness, passivity, and waiting. Martin Heidegger’s concepts of care and discourse prove useful in examining how to facilitate rather than interrupt this process. It becomes necessary to think beyond verbal communication towards a wider concept of communication that involves silence and intercorporeality. Birth requires a special kind of being-with as being-there.

Waiting in the asylum determination process: Just an empty interlude?

In both the academic literature and the public imagination, waiting time is often understood as passive, empty and wasted, particularly when associated with institutional or organisational settings. The purpose of this paper is to challenge this limited conceptualisation, by exploring the experiences of asylum seekers who waited between 2 and 9 years in the UK for a resolution of their precarious immigration status in Glasgow, UK. When asked to describe their experiences of waiting, these individuals tended to articulate the dominant notion of waiting as passive, stagnant time spent ‘doing nothing’. Rather than taking such narrative accounts at face value, I consider broader ethnographic material pertaining to their everyday lives, which attests to a more complex lived experience of waiting. I argue that their waiting was affective, involving a heightened anticipation of the future and reflection on desired and dreaded outcomes; active, as they structured and filled their time with a variety of routines, activities and projects; and, in a more limited sense, productive, as waiting time could be transformed into capital. I conclude that for the asylum seekers involved in this research, waiting was not an empty interlude between events but an intentional and agential process.

‘Stuck in the middle’: Waiting and uncertainty in immigration detention

A defining feature of immigration detention in the United Kingdom is its indeterminacy; that is, there are no statutory constraints on the length of time an individual can be detained. As such, detention is uncertain and unpredictable; it may last a few hours or a few days, or weeks, months, and even years. Consequently, the lived experience of detention is one of waiting: waiting to know both when and how detention will end (i.e. release to the community or expulsion from the country). The denial of liberty and the conditions of confinement present additional challenges for detainees, as they must contend with significant limits to their agency as they await the decisions of a variety of other actors. Waiting has been conceptualised as an exercise of power, one that manipulates others’ time. Although it is a common human experience, for immigration detainees, the lived experience of waiting in the uncertain and unpredictable context of detention is especially challenging. Passing time in immigration detention raises important questions about affect, identity, agency, and resistance within this unique quasi-penal space. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork, including 89 semi-structured interviews with detainees, carried out in four immigration removal centres in the UK to explore the lived experiences of waiting. The analysis demonstrates the relevancy of time and agency in immigration detention.

Wait, Won't! Want: Barriers to Health Care as Perceived by Medically and Socially Disenfranchised Communities

Objectives We explored barriers to healthcare as perceived by members of medically and socially disenfranchised communities. Methods. We conducted focus groups with 28 women and 32 men from Northeast Ohio who identified themselves as African-American, Hispanic/Latino, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered, and/or Russian immigrant. Results Participants described their experiences of waiting, things they won't tolerate, when they won't participate, and what they want from providers. They described behaviors, actions and relationship characteristics that they want from their providers and characteristics that they prefer in health systems. Conclusions The themes of Wait, Won't, and Want have healthcare practice and policy implications. Patient-provider interactions are known to be significant determinants of healthcare outcomes and these exploratory findings suggest that they might also affect patient self-management strategies. Future efforts should focus on developing and testing patient-centered strategies that address the themes identified to increase engagement to increase self-management of health.

Waiting for the state: a politics of housing in South Africa

Although specified in the South African Bill of Rights, for the majority of South African citizens the right to access housing translates in practice to the experience of waiting. In this paper we reflect on the micropolitics of waiting, practices of quiet encroachment, exploring how and where citizens wait and make do, and their encounters with the state in these processes. We argue that waiting for homes shapes a politics of finding shelter in the meanwhile partially visible yet precarious, the grey spaces of informality and illegality that constitute South African cities. At the same time, waiting generates a politics of encounter between citizen and state, practices immersed in shifting policy approaches and techniques, the contingent and often-opaque practices of governance. In sum, the politics of waiting for housing in South Africa proves paradoxical: citizens are marked as legitimate wards of the state. Yet, to live in the meanwhile and in the long term requires subversion, an agency that is sometimes visible in mobilisation and protest, and at other times out of sight, simultaneously contentious and legitimate.

Dissatisfaction and violation: two distinct consequences of the wait experience

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the theory that dissatisfaction and violation are distinct affective responses to a service wait. It was thought that dissatisfaction was a consequence of a disconfirmation of expectations while violation was a consequence of a breach of a psychological contract.Design/methodology/approach– The study used the critical incidents method to examine 144 consumption stories where an informant experienced a wait in a service situation.Findings– It was found that consumers generally felt disappointed or dissatisfied when they experienced a wait when they had expectations about waiting time. When they believed that service provider had made concrete representations (or promises) about the length of time it would take to deliver a service, they felt angry or outraged. These are elements of the overall affective state of violation.Research limitations/implications– The critical incidents technique is well used in services marketing and rich theory building method of investigation. It has known limitations. In addition to explaining reaction to waits and delays, the application of psychological contract theory might apply to a host of marketing phenomena and the theory explains why some consumers get frustrated and angry while others are merely dissatisfied.Originality/value– There are two significant contributions of this paper. First, the psychological contract exists in service marketing situations and that the psychological contract is different from consumer expectations about the service encounter. Second, dissatisfaction is distinct from violation as violation is a strong emotional response to breach of the psychological contract in the service encounter.

Stuck in the Middlee: Waiting and Uncertainty in Immigration Detention

A defining feature of immigration detention in the United Kingdom is its indeterminacy; that is, there are no statutory constraints on the length of time an individual can be detained. As such, detention is uncertain and unpredictable; it may last a few hours or a few days, or weeks, months, and even years. Consequently, the lived experience of detention is one of waiting: waiting to know both when and how detention will end (i.e. release to the community or expulsion from the country). The denial of liberty and the conditions of confinement present additional challenges for detainees, as they must contend with significant limits to their agency as they await the decisions of a variety of other actors. Waiting has been conceptualised as an exercise of power, one that manipulates others’ time. Although it is a common human experience, for immigration detainees, the lived experience of waiting in the uncertain and unpredictable context of detention is especially challenging. Passing time in immigration detention raises important questions about affect, identity, agency, and resistance within this unique quasi-penal space. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork within immigration removal centres in the UK to explore the lived experiences of waiting.

Study on the interaction between the food and beverage servicescape and customer waiting experience

Past research on the customer waiting experience tended to focus on two primary areas, namely managing the wait and managing the perception of the wait. Very few studies conducted in-depth analysis and discus¬sion of how external environmental factors affect the experience of customer waiting, which it was also viewed as a negative factor that decreases customer satisfaction toward service. However, in reality, the waiting experience can be positive as a result of certain environmental factors, and subsequently increases customer satisfaction toward the service. This study aimed to further examine the potential influencing factors arising from the servicescape during the customer waiting process, and the interaction between the servicescape and customers during their wait time. This paper is based on the causal feedback loop. A system dynamics perspective was applied to construct a conceptual systems model showing the interaction between the servi¬cescape and the customer waiting experience.

Framework for Analyzing Wait Times and Other Factors that Impact Patient Satisfaction in the Emergency Department

Background Wait times and patient satisfaction are important administrative metrics in emergency departments (EDs), as they are critical to return patronage, liability, and remuneration. Although several factors have been shown to impact patient satisfaction, little attention has been paid to understanding the psychology of waiting and patient satisfaction. Objective We utilize concepts that have been applied in other service industries to conceptualize factors that impact patient satisfaction. We focus on wait times, a key factor in patient satisfaction, and describe how these concepts can be applied in research and daily practice. Discussion Patient satisfaction can be conceptualized as the difference between a patient’s perceptions and their expectations. Perception is the psychological process by which an individual understands and interprets sensory information. Changes in the wait experience can decrease the perceived wait times without a change in actual wait times. Other changes such as improved staff interpersonal and communication skills that provide patients with an increased sense of the staff’s dedication as well as a greater understanding of their care, can also affect patient perceptions of their care quality. These changes in patient perception can synergize with more expensive investments such as state-of-the-art facilities and increased ED beds to magnify their impact on patient satisfaction. Expectation is the level of service a patient believes they will receive during their ED visit. Patients arrive with expectations around the component of their care such as wait times, needed diagnostic tests, and overall time in the ED. These expectations are affected by individual-specific, pre-encounter, and intra-encounter factors. When these factors are identified and understood, they can be managed during the care process to improve patient satisfaction. Conclusion Interventions to decrease perception of wait times and increase the perception of service being provided, when combined with management of patient expectations, can improve patient satisfaction.

Patients of the State: An Ethnographic Account of Poor People's Waiting

Drawing on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in the main welfare office of the city of Buenos Aires, this article dissects poor people's lived experiences of waiting. The article examines the welfare office as a site of intense sociability amidst pervasive uncertainty. Poor people's waiting experiences persuade the destitute of the need to be patient, thus conveying the implicit state request to be compliant clients. An analysis of the sociocultural dynamics of waiting helps us understand how (and why) welfare clients become not citizens but patients of the state.

‘The waiting mode’: First-time mothers’ experiences of waiting for labour onset

Purpose To explore first-time mothers’ experiences of waiting for labour onset, and to contribute to the discussion of existing practices surrounding perinatal care. Methods A qualitative study of 17 women in Norway. Diaries written by the informants and in-depth interviews were analysed in a tradition of life-world phenomenology. Results The participants entered a state of active waiting, “the waiting mode”, in the days around the estimated date of delivery. When the women entered the mode there was a marked change in the way they interpreted bodily sensations. The women experienced being in a state of constant bodily alertness, their bodies felt all-consuming and they experienced themselves as being “more and more body”. This generated a sense of being enclosed in the body, intensely trying to identify the signs of labour. Being in the waiting mode seemed to draw labour closer in a manner that opened up for the birthing process and helped the women to prepare for labour. Conclusions The findings indicate that the estimated date of delivery is pivotal in shaping women’s experiences of waiting. It raises concerns related to how women who are giving birth for the first time are prepared for labour, and a worry that too much weight is put on the exact date. A stronger emphasis on the diversity of women’s experiences might be in place. Pregnant women could be encouraged to explore and interpret bodily experiences on their own terms, not merely in relation to the estimated date of delivery.

A framework for evaluating the customer wait experience

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model which defines the psychological processes that mediate the relationship between perceived wait duration (PWD) and satisfaction. This model will provide a framework for evaluating the impact of situational and environmental variables in the servicescape on customer reaction to the wait experience.Design/methodology/approachThe approach included one field study and two laboratory experiments in which subjects participated in a service with a pre‐process wait and evaluated their experience on a survey.FindingsPerceived wasted time, perceived control, perceived boredom, and perceived neglect mediated the relationship between PWD and wait experience evaluation. When tested using filled versus unfilled wait time as the situational variable, the model showed that having something to do during the wait decreased perceived boredom, resulting in a more positive wait experience.Research limitations/implicationsThe services used in this paper were functional (as opposed to hedonistic) in nature and wait durations were a maximum of ten minutes.Originality/valueThe framework established in this paper can be used to evaluate customer reaction to the elements of the waiting environment design, which will help managers design waiting environments that maximize customer satisfaction, and help researchers to understand changes in the relationship between PWD and satisfaction under different environmental conditions.

Existential boredom: the experience of living on haemodialysis therapy

Empathy is an essential component of professional nursing practice. In order to empathise appropriately with patients, it is crucial that nurses appreciate, understand and respond to their patients’ experience of...

Service optimization with patient satisfaction in healthcare systems

Market research on services and waiting lends support to the fact that waiting for service is an undesirable phenomenon adversely affecting customer satisfaction and consequently business enterprises. The simulation optimization strategy described in this study addresses both the subjective as well as the objective elements in the patients’ evaluation of healthcare services. The cost function simulates the average sojourn time of the patients in the healthcare system, whereas the fuzzy constraints quantitatively estimate the overall waiting and service experience of the patients. Minimization of the cost function (objective element in the patients’ evaluation of service) subject to the fuzzy constraints (subjective elements in the patients’ evaluation of service) leads to an increased patient satisfaction, increased efficiency of system operation and consequently increased profits. The proposed method makes a topological cum functional model of the healthcare system, simulates the operation via discrete event simulation and optimizes it using the Genetic Algorithm.

Numbers or apologies? Customer reactions to telephone waiting time fillers.

The authors examined the effect of time perception and sense of progress in telephone queues on caller reactions to 3 telephone waiting time fillers: music, apologies, and information about location in the queue. In Study 1, conducted on 123 real calls, call abandonment was lowest, and call evaluations were most positive with information about location in the queue as the time filler. In Study 2, conducted with 83 participants who experienced a simulated telephone wait experience, sense of progress in the queue rather than perceived waiting time mediated the relationship between telephone waiting time filler and caller reactions. The findings provide insight for the management and design of telephone queues, as well as theoretical insight into critical cognitive processes that underlie telephone waiting, opening up an important new research agenda.

Waiting

Waiting…. We've all done it. We have all had that universal experience of waiting. Waiting for news; waiting in line; waiting in traffic. Waiting can be distressing, exciting, or a neutral experience. It all depends on the context. Waiting in line at the store is a rather neutral experience, especially if the line is short and you are not running late for something important. Waiting to see your child come off of the bus after a 3-day school trip can be exciting and full of joyous expectation. Waiting for the results of a biopsy, taken from your child's liver to determine if he has a life-threatening illness, is an experience filled with pain and fear. This last context of waiting is the subject of this brief essay.

Waiting for Marxo

Abstract Samuel Beckett's play waiting for Godot recounts the story of two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, awaiting the arrival of Godot. Within the boredom of the wait Estragon and Vladimir are forced to evaluate the purpose of their own life, their existence, the existence of God[ot] and the nature of the human condition. However, Godot never arrives and all that remains is the experience of waiting. In a similar way critical accounting is caught in an act of waiting. Waiting for Marx, for Habermas, for Foucault or for some other thinker to come and to rescue us from our predicament. In this lies some of the academic angst over the future of the critical project. Here we present an imaginative dialogue, substituting two accounting academics for Beckett's tramps. As such they do not represent real people but rather the struggle within the academic discourse for identity, self and meaning. While this dialogue might seem hopeless, reflecting the frustration present in the Beckett original, there is the possibility of emancipation as both of the characters agree to abandon the wait for Marxo and to proceed with their project, in effect fulfilling Marx[o]'s injunction that ‘the role of philosophy is not to describe the world but to change it’.

The Experience of Waiting and Life During Breast Cancer Follow-Up

Much research exists on quality of life issues with breast cancer survivors. However, there has been little done on the waiting experience itself, and on the experience of follow-up from the women's perspective. Women who have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer live with the condition for a minimum of 5 years, waiting for the next medical intervention; waiting for the next battery of tests; waiting for the next physician check-up. Throughout most of these years they may feel healthy, but they experience visits to cancer clinics, medical testing, and physician interactions. Women's accounts of their experiences of waiting and life during follow-up for breast cancer has not been the focus of research on the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. In particular research that uses a qualitative approach, in which women recount their experiences in their own language, has been missing. This study used a phenomenological approach, telling the stories of waiting and life throughout follow-up of nine women. The women's experiences are captured in four themes: life-changing; a sense of belonging; uncertainty; needing to know.