ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate parental satisfaction with communication provided by health care personnel at Lady Ridgeway Hospital and to determine if differences existed in selected groups. Study design: A prospective descriptive cross-sectional study. Study setting: All six medical wards of Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo Study population: Patients aged 6 months to 14 years with a single hospitalization for a period of five or more days or with two or more hospitalization episodes for the same illness were serially enrolled until the calculated sample size of 458 were recruited. Method: Parental satisfaction with communication provided by doctors, nurses & physiotherapists was evaluated using a pretested questionnaire. Demographic details and parental knowledge about child’s illness were recorded by an interviewer not involved in the care of the child. Richards Scale (a five point scoring system) assessed parental satisfaction regarding ‘establishing rapport’, ‘health advice received’, ‘caring attitude towards patient’ & ‘moral support provided’. Results: Of 458 parents interviewed 95% were mothers. All received care from doctors and nurses but only 49 had met physiotherapists. Forty-one (9%) had more than 5 admissions for chronic illnesses, 53% were first admissions and 38% recurrent admissions. Hospital stay ranged from 5 to 21 days. Mean age of patients was 4.5 years. Male: female ratio was 3:2. Type of illnesses ranged from acute infections to chronic illness and disabilities. Majority of respondents were educated up to GCE O/L and 8% were graduates. Doctors were rated highest for their ability to establish rapport at initial encounter, and lowest for their ability to inform parents of prognosis and follow-up management plans. Time taken by doctors for questions of parents and advice given about the illness were also considered inadequate. There was overall satisfaction regarding a caring attitude by all three categories of personnel but physiotherapists were rated best in this aspect, doctors next and nurses the lowest. There was no significant variation in the demographic variables of ethnicity or gender and communication received. Parental knowledge on illness on the day of discharge was better in recurrent admissions although there was no significance (Mean score in first admissions 24.32, recurrent admissions 25.21). Conclusion: There was overall satisfaction among parents at LRH but we found several aspects of communication that need improvement for delivery of better quality in-door care.