Anderson R
Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia.
Br Dent J. 2004 Sep 25;197(6):331-4; discussion 323. doi: 10.1038/sj.bdj.4811652.
To describe the expectations of walk-in patients seeking emergency dental care out-of-hours.
Consecutive patients attending two emergency dental clinics at weekends were interviewed prior to seeing the dentist. The audio-recorded interview transcripts were analysed using the "framework" method of applied qualitative data analysis.
Forty-four walk-in emergency dental patients at a community-based dental clinic and a dental hospital emergency clinic at the weekend.
In addition to symptom relief, the main desired outcome for emergency dental patients may be informational and psychological--especially reassurance that the problem is not serious, and reduced uncertainty about the cause of the pain. In general, patients' stated expectations for specific treatments (such as antibiotics, or tooth extraction) were not absolute: rather, they implied these expectations were conditional upon the dentist deciding they were necessary.
Emergency dental services, some of which are still dominantly treatment-focused, should reflect that many emergency dental attenders want advice and reassurance as much as relief from symptoms. This reinforces the importance of effective and sympathetic dentist-patient communication within emergency or out-of-hours consultations. It also implies that dentists' skills in listening, explaining and reassuring should be captured in any patient satisfaction or outcome measure designed for this patient group.
描述非工作时间前来寻求急诊牙科护理的患者的期望。
在周末前往两家急诊牙科诊所就诊的连续患者在看牙医之前接受了访谈。使用应用定性数据分析的“框架”方法对录音访谈记录进行了分析。
周末在一家社区牙科诊所和一家牙科医院急诊诊所的44名非预约急诊牙科患者。
除了缓解症状外，急诊牙科患者主要期望获得信息和心理安慰，尤其是确认问题不严重，并减少对疼痛原因的不确定性。一般来说，患者对特定治疗（如抗生素或拔牙）的既定期望并非绝对：相反，他们表示这些期望取决于牙医认为有必要。
一些仍然主要以治疗为重点的急诊牙科服务应认识到，许多急诊牙科患者既希望缓解症状，也希望获得建议和安慰。这强化了在急诊或非工作时间会诊中进行有效且富有同情心的医患沟通的重要性。这也意味着，在为该患者群体设计的任何患者满意度或结果衡量标准中，都应体现牙医倾听、解释和安慰的技能。
