[Patient satisfaction with emergency care nurses].

OBJECTIVE

To measure the overall satisfaction of patients with nursing care during their stay in the emergency unit, evaluating the satisfaction with specific professional skills and the degree of information provided by nurses at discharge.

METHOD

A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at the Ramon y Cajal University Hospital. The subjects of study are those patients who come to the emergency unit and met the inclusion criteria. A mean of 840 people were seen weekly, and it was estimated to collect 200 questionnaires over a period of one week. The questionnaire was self-administered. The variables analyzed were: clinical, sociodemographic, satisfaction and problem solving. The instrument used was the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale (CECSS). The Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 16.0 software package. Categorical variables are expressed in absolute and relative frequency; and continuous variables are expressed as the mean and the standard deviation. Asymmetric behavioral variables are described by their median, the interquartile interval and the non-parametric test of Kruskal-Wallis.

RESULTS

We surveyed 200 patients and we studied 198 patients who expressed high levels of overall satisfaction and satisfaction with professional competence. The degree of information at discharge is the dimension worst noted. No association was found between patient satisfaction and sociodemographic variables. The satisfaction was higher in patients who returned home than in those who were admitted in the hospital, the dimension of information at discharge being very significant.

CONCLUSIONS

We need to improve the information provided by the nursing staff to patients at discharge.