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Abstract Aim Hospital admission can be a stressful and confusing time for patients. There is concern that upon discharge, they may not always be fully aware of their diagnosis, current treatment and proposed follow up, which can in turn negatively affect overall patient experience. This audit aims to quantify patient understanding upon discharge from a busy District General Surgical unit. Method Emergency and elective colorectal and UGI general surgical patients (n=98) attending the Victoria Hospital Kirkcaldy (NHS Fife) between November 2022 and April 2023 were included. A handout inspired by, and with permission from, E.N. Thomas et al (1), was created with five key questions assessing patient understanding of elements of their admission including current diagnosis and changes to medicines. These were scored from 1-5 (5 being strongly agree). Results Overall the results were positive with most patients scoring highly in all areas. Diagnosis was the highest scoring factor with a mean score of 4.68/5, whilst there was least patient certainty regarding follow up plans scoring 4.37/5. Knowledge surrounding medication changes during admission scored 4.62/5, knowing what problems can occur and who to contact if they do occur, scored 4.58/5 and 4.51/5 respectively. Conclusions The findings highlight that patient understanding surpasses levels previously reported, demonstrating that even fast paced surgical ward rounds can provide patients with the correct information. As has been previously suggested, this is a simple cost-effective assessment process that can be used to ensure adequate patient understanding.
Marsh et al. (Mon,) studied this question.