ABSTRACT
Background: Healthcare practitioners should provide patients with information regarding their clinical conditions. Patients should also feel free to seek clarity on information provided. However; not all patients seek this clarity. Objectives: To explore the reasons inpatients gave for not seeking clarity on information that was received but not understood. Methods: This was a qualitative arm of a larger study; titled 'Are inpatients aware of the admission reasons and management plans of their clinical conditions? A survey at a tertiary hospital in South Africa'; conducted in 2010. Of the 264 inpatients who participated in the larger study; we extracted the unstructured responses from those participants (n = 152) who had indicated in the questionnaire that there was information they had not understood during their encounter with healthcare practitioners; but that they had nonetheless not sought clarity.Data were analysed thematically. Results: Themes that emerged were that inpatients did not ask for clarity as they perceived healthcare practitioners to be 'too busy'; aloof; non-communicators and sometimes uncertain about patients' conditions. Some inpatients had unquestioning trust in healthcare practitioners;whilst others had experiences of bad treatment. Inpatients had poor self-esteem; incapacitating clinical conditions; fear of bad news and prior knowledge of their clinical conditions. Some inpatients stated that they had no reason for not seeking clarity. Conclusion: The reasons for not seeking clarity were based on patients' experiences with the healthcare practitioners and their perceptions of the latter and of themselves. A programme should be developed in order to educate inpatients on effective communication with their healthcare practitioners