Perception of The Quality of Discharge Teaching and Readiness for Hospital Discharge Among Surgical Patients and Nurses in Indonesia

Abstract

The descriptive correlational study aimed to describe the quality of discharge teaching perceived by surgical patients and nurses and to examine the relationship between the quality of discharge teaching and readiness for hospital discharge among surgical patients. Ninety-six surgical patients and 118 surgical nurses selected from general surgical units of four main public hospitals in Bengkulu, Indonesia were enrolled during January to February 2018. Self-report questionnaires were used consisting of demographic data, the Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale (QDTS), and the Readiness for Hospital Discharge (RHDS). The QDTS and RHDS instruments were validated by three experts and the back- translation into Bahasa Indonesian was also performed by two bilingual experts. The Bahasa version of the questionnaires was tested with 20 surgical patients and 20 surgical nurses in a public hospital. The Cronbach's alpha reliability of the QDTS for the patients was 95 and the nurses was 97. Furthermore, the Cronbach's alpha reliability of the RHDS for the patients was 91. Descriptive statistics and Spearman Rank-Order Correlation were used. The results showed that the quality of discharge teaching perceived by the nurses was at a moderate level (M = 7.43, SD = 1.58), while the patients' perception was at a low level (M = 6.66, SD = 0.46). Overall, the patients' readiness for hospital discharge was also reported at a moderate level (M = 7.11, SD = 0.59). In addition, there was no relationship between the quality of discharge teaching and the readiness for hospital discharge. However, a positive relationship was found in some QDTS and RHDS subscales such as the knowledge, coping ability, content received and expected support subscales. This finding could indicate the importance of patient focused education in regards to the discharge content and delivery to improve the quality of discharge teaching and the readiness of the patients during the transition process. The exploration of post-hospitalization outcomes is required for further study.