Article Text
Abstract
Aims Patient satisfaction has become increasingly important not only as a feedback mechanism for better care but also in achieving prescribed targets. Traditionally, the main method gauging satisfaction has been by using questionnaires but their quality can vary and on ‘construction, validation, and sampling’. As things stand there is not a substantial amount of research into evaluating a child’s experience of undergoing an anaesthetic. In the past, paediatric satisfaction has usually been measured by proxy from parents. It is therefore the intent of the study to create a robust paediatric and parental feedback survey of satisfaction in paediatric anaesthetics. Our aim was to develop a tested feedback questionnaire which in the future could be routinely used to evaluate patient satisfaction with paediatric anaesthesia.
Methods This was an observational study that measured qualitative variables based on patient satisfaction of paediatric anaesthesia in day case surgery patients. The study was in two main sections. Firstly semi-structured interviews were undertaken with children aged between 3 and 16 along with their parents. Following this a satisfaction questionnaire was created based on the information gathered from these preliminary interviews. The questionnaire was also quality checked using a care-analysis tool.
A search into current literature gave us an initial set of key areas to cover when assessing satisfaction. The preliminary interviews then served to supplement this, by highlighting what is important to them and not been considered previously.
Results The preliminary interviews and sample (n = 53) have brought to light some interesting areas that can determine satisfaction (such as sufficient information given beforehand on gas versus drip induction and adolescent patients found the gown’s too revealing). It was also reassuring that current practices in paediatric anaesthetics are of a consistently high standard.
Conclusion We hope to create a digital version using an interface such as a tablet. It should be made clear that this is an ongoing project with exciting prospects and good potential for expanding into future areas of research. The focus is now to change practice.