Research Article - (2022) Volume 10, Issue 2
Received: 13-May-2021, Manuscript No. JBHE-21-31380;
Editor assigned: 19-May-2021, Pre QC No. P-31380;
Reviewed: 23-Jun-2021, QC No. Q-31380;
Revised: 27-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. R-31380;
Published:
03-Feb-2022
, DOI: 10.4172/2380-5439.100008
Citation: Patil, Arun Harshada and Shrikrishna Dhal. “Patient Education: A Tool towards Patient Satisfaction.” J Health Edu Res Dev 10 (2022): 08.
Copyright: © 2022 Patil AH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Patient education is a tool which is used by healthcare professional and impart information to patients and their care givers that will after health behaviours or improve their health status and patient satisfaction. There is increase in illnesses and hospitalization so, it is difficult for healthcare professionals to handle all the patients as well as their relatives. Patient education mediums such as Pamphlets, Brochures, Pictorial guide, Digital dynamic powerpoint presentations through TV educate patient and their relatives about overall process of department as well as their treatments. Patient education is one of the tools to improve patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is one of the important aspects from hospital point of view as well as patient satisfaction in an extent of to which patients are happy with their healthcare. This article shows the relationship between Patient education and Patient satisfaction as well as how Patient education leads to patient satisfaction. This is done by studying and circulating questionnaire among different hospitals.
Patient education ●Patient satisfaction ● Patient education mediums
Hospital and healthcare industry have a topmost importance in world. Now-a-days number diseases, illnesses as well as patients are increasing. Developing country like India contains a large number of population with respect to the proportion of world’s population. This country does not have hospitals, equipment and trained medical staff to handle hospital and patients. Thus, patients in these country does not receive proper medicine, service and treatment it also effect on patient satisfaction. In developed countries, the condition is totally different hospital institution is little complex and it is depends on the new technology. In developed country there are many advanced machinery, medicines and professional healthcare staff. Healthcare system taking more efforts to become more patient-centric by establishing partnership among patients and their families to align decisions with patient’s wants, needs and preferences [1-5]. Patient education plays an important role in educating patient regarding overall hospital process, medicines as well as their treatment.
Patient Education is a way to educate patient regarding overall hospital’s department services. There are different medium of patient education like, One-on-one teaching, Demonstrations, Analogies, Graphics, Brochures or other printed materials, Podcasts, YouTube videos, Videos or DVDs, PowerPoint presentations, Posters or charts, Models or props, Group classes, Trained peer educators [6]. Healthcare professionals used these mediums to educate patient and their relatives to reduce time consumption as well as better understanding of process from patient and their relative’s point of view. Because of patient education patient and their relatives became more knowledgeable about their care and treatment options. Patient education helps to improve patient satisfaction regarding overall process of the hospital.
Patient education leads to potential to be low cost and effective means of improving patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is an important key factor for any hospital. Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality in health care. Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims [7]. Patient satisfaction also helps in taking decisions about changes and improvement in the process of hospital process. Improving patient satisfaction increase the recommendation by patient to their friends and family members who look forward to appropriate provider [8]. There are various challenges encountered in educating patient which effect on patient satisfaction.
Importance and benefits of patient education
Patient education is a way to reduce time of healthcare professionals which is consumed by explaining patient about their treatment and process of the department. Patient education increased patient understanding in a simpler way. Patient education ensures that patient well informed about their diagnosis, cure and side effects of the diseases. It also helps them to choose possible treatment options. Educated patient can self-manage certain things without help of healthcare professionals. Not each and every factor will manage by patient and their relatives but some factor which patient and their relatives can easily understand those factors managed by them. Patients are already aware of their goals as well as process of the department it helps to enhance motivation as well as improve outcomes [9]. Educating patient on their health as well as on process of hospital, organization can reduce the number of unnecessary phone calls, admissions and visits it will help in improving organization’s outcome as well as increase patient satisfaction. Mediums (materials) of Patient Education There are many tools of patient education is available in the organization. It is the matter of organization to use all of those mediums (materials) or some of them to educate their patient. There are digital mediums of patient education is available as well as paper handouts are also available. Use of patient education mediums are different from organization to organization means Multi-specialty hospitals can use all the digital mediums of patient education where smaller organization can use paper handouts for patient education. The different Mediums of patient education are as follows
i. One-on-one teaching
ii. Demonstrations
iii. Analogies
iv. Graphics
v. Brochures or other printed materials
vi. Podcasts
vii. YouTube videos
viii. Videos or DVDs
ix. PowerPoint presentations
x. Posters or charts
xi. Models or props
xii. Group classes
xiii. Trained peer educators.
Importance of patient satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is a question is still worth. Because from patient point of view hospital is one of the scary experiences they are went through. Patient Satisfaction is one of the important factors from the hospital point of view. Hospital and healthcare professionals can improve their hospital service as per the patient’s need. Now-a-days hospitals are became more patient-centric and pays attention to the patient satisfaction because it is one of the growing factors in healthcare industry.
Co-relation between patient education and patient satisfaction
The goal of the patient education is to improve patient’s knowledge about their health and treatments. As well as to improve patient and patient’s relatives experience in the organization which directly affect to the patient’s satisfaction. It states that patient education and patient satisfaction are linked to each other. When hospitals focuses on improving patient satisfaction and their experience it can be improve the quality of care organization provided. Patient education and patient satisfaction are also linked with the patient empowerment.
Challenges
1. Language barrier
2. Consumption of time
3. Misunderstanding
4. Misinterpretation
5. Difficulty in understanding due to illiteracy
Aim and objective
Aim: To prove patient education is one of the tools towards patient satisfaction.
Objective: To study relation between patient education and patient satisfaction.
A sample of 50 hospitals spread over Maharashtra were produced by survey in two months. The questionnaire of 16 questions which took hardly 5 minutes to complete the survey form. The survey questions were distributed through mail. The survey forms were circulated to more than 100 hospitals spread across Maharashtra. The participants were eligible for the survey if they knew about the patient education materials that was adopted by the hospitals. The data was collected without any personal identifiers to ensure appropriate confidentiality. Survey forms were filled by doctors, hospital administrator and other healthcare staff.
The survey questions that were asked regarding the different medium of educational materials (patient education) that are adopted by the hospitals. Data from the questionnaires was collated and checked for missing values. In total 50 participants completed the survey and this data used for analysis. There are some questions were asked about patient satisfaction and link between patient education and patient satisfaction.
This study also had a step of reviewing previous literature to learn patients’ perceptions on patient education and patient satisfaction. This reviewing of the articles provided knowledge of how the study design was conducted as well as relationship between patient education and patient satisfaction.
Total sample of 50 hospitals used to data analysis. Survey forms were filled by both healthcare as well as non-healthcare staff also. Healthcare staff consists of nurses, doctors, pharmacist etc. and non-healthcare staff consists of administrators, radiologist, and technicians etc. who filled survey forms with their respective hospitals.
In today’s scenario, patient education is an extremely important from hospital point of view because it helps patients to take decisions regarding their treatments and it is helpful to aware patient and their relatives regarding hospital process. In survey among 50 samples 98% of personnel says that education patient is an important factor.
Having website of hospital helps patient to find or reach hospital anytime and anywhere. It helps to relevant information exchange. It builds credibility, it allows smooth customer service online. 96% of the hospital of survey has their own website. There are different mediums of patient education available in the hospital such as, Pamphlets, Brochures, Pictorial guide, Digital Dynamic Powerpoints through TV this are some common mediums used by hospitals. Along with this mediums some hospitals have other mediums of patient education such as Kiosk, Patient guide, Social media and events, campaigns, outreach programs and news through SMS.
There are different digital patient education mediums adapted by the hospitals such as Mobile app, Blog, Newspaper, Chatbot, Newsletter, Linkdin and facebook
Educating patient can improve the overall outcomes of the hospital procedure which can be affect to the patient satisfaction level as well. 100% of the hospital agrees that educating patient can improve the outcome of the treatment and overall procedure of the department.
There are different ways to increase patient satisfaction because patient satisfaction is one of the important factor in the healthcare organization. Patient education, Improve hospital atmosphere, personalize patient experience and ensure cleanliness of hospital are the ways to increase patient satisfaction. 96% of the hospital use patient education is an effective way to increase patient satisfaction
According to the records of survey 98% of the hospital personnel thinks that patient education leads to patient satisfaction. 2% of the personnel are neutral between if patient education leads to patient satisfaction or not. No one in the survey thinks that patient education is not leads to patient satisfaction.
Providing patient education by healthcare as well as non-healthcare personnel to patient not only improve patient experience in the organization it also helps in improving organization procedure. 86% of the personnel agrees that patient education also helps in improving organization procedure. 14% of the personnel thinks somewhat it helps in improved organization (Figures 1-8).
Figure 1. Number of personnel agree that educating patient is an important factor.
Figure 2. Number of hospitals who have their own website.
Figure 3. Different mediums of patient education used by hospitals.
Figure 4. Digital mediums of patient education.
Figure 5. Number of hospitals who thinks that educating patient can improve overall procedure of the department.
Figure 6. Percentage of ways to patient satisfaction.
Figure 7. Number of personnel who thinks patient education leads to patient satisfaction.
Figure 8. Percentage of personnel who thinks providing patient education organization has improved.
The goal of patient education is to educate patient regarding their treatment and hospital procedure which increase patient satisfaction level. Self-ruling choices to accept responsibility for care however much as could be expected and improve their own results [10-15]. Different mediums assume a significant part in the adequacy of patient training, which has been appeared to impact on patients and their relatives. Patients should be shown correct data that must be conveyed at a level they can comprehend. Likewise, patients who feel that they're very much educated trust the medical services framework and are bound to be happy with their consideration.
In the data analysis, we have seen many of the healthcare and nonhealthcare personnel has filled up survey form on behalf of hospital. 98% of the personnel thinks that patient education is an important factor because educating patient is an important part in healthcare organization. Having a site for your emergency clinic implies, patients are consistently ready to discover you whenever and anyplace. This implies that they can get all the data even after business hours. Your site will keep on serving your patients and secure new ones. It offers accommodation as they can get to the data they need at the solace of their home. This helps patients during the hour of crisis also.
96% of the hospitals have their own site and they provide various facilities by online site. As we have discussed in data analysis, there are different patient education materials including manual as well as digital mediums also. Highly used patient education medium is pamphlets 90% of the hospitals use this. 80% of the hospitals use digital dynamic powerpoints through TV. 42% of the hospital uses their own mobile apps. 76% of the hospital use blog to educate their patients. All healthcare as well as non-healthcare personnel agrees with the point that educating patient can improve outcome of the treatment as well as procedure of the hospital. Understanding fulfilment is a significant and ordinarily utilized pointer for estimating the quality in medical services. Quiet fulfilment influences clinical results, tolerant maintenance, and clinical negligence claims. It influences the convenient, productive, and tolerant focused conveyance of value medical services. Persistent fulfilment is accordingly an intermediary yet a powerful pointer to gauge the accomplishment of specialists and emergency clinics. 96% of the personnel think that patient education is leading factor to the patient satisfaction. Thus, 86% of the personnel say that organization improved considerably by providing patient education and 14% of the personnel says it may improve by providing patient education.
This study was simply to look through late advancements in the field of patient education because of rising pattern of computerized innovation. Providing patient education can lead to patient satisfaction in the healthcare organization. This could assist patients with seeing wellbeing data more available, spare time, improves review and seeing, additionally expanding more patient commitment in medical services. Adopting different mediums of patient education it can be challenge for many of the organization because adopting some new things come up with new challenges. Educating patient helps patient themselves to choose treatment of their choice, they explained pros and cons of all treatments to patient and their relatives. Patient education also helps in educate patient and their relatives about hospital or department process and facilities. This helps in improving patient satisfaction which is an important factor in any healthcare organization.
