Evaluation of emergency department nursing services and patient satisfaction of services.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To identify nursing services and assess patient satisfaction in patients who present to the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Emergency nursing care is a significant determinant of patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is often regarded as a reliable indicator of the quality of services provided in the emergency department.

DESIGN: This is a descriptive study.

METHODS: Eighty-four patients who presented to the university emergency department were included in the study. The study data were collected by the Patient Information Form and the Satisfaction Level Form.

RESULTS: Emergency nursing services, including history taking, assessing vital signs, preparing the patient for an emergency intervention, oxygen therapy, drug delivery and blood-serum infusion were shown to be more commonly provided compared with other services such as counselling the patients and the relatives about their care or delivering educational and psychosocial services. However, 78·6% of the patients were satisfied with their nursing services. The highest satisfaction rates were observed in the following sub-dimensions of the Satisfaction Level Form: availability of the nurse (82·1%), behaviour of the nurse towards the patient (78·6%) and the frequency of nursing rounds (77·4%).

CONCLUSIONS: The most common practices performed by nurses in the emergency department were physical nursing services. Patient satisfaction was mostly associated with the availability of nurses when they were needed. Our results suggest that in addition to the physical care, patients should also receive education and psychosocial care in the emergency department.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: We believe that this study will contribute to the awareness and understanding of principles and concepts of emergency nursing, extend the limits of nursing knowledge and abilities, and improve and maintain the quality of clinical nursing education and practice to train specialist nurses with high levels of understanding in ethical, intellectual, administrative, investigative and professional issues.