None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Presenting to a surgical outpatient clinic can be a stressful experience for patients. Disparity in education levels, perceived power imbalances and other factors can result in the patient feeling unsatisfied or confused at the completion of the consultation. We propose a randomised controlled study; whereby, the participant is placed into either the intervention group and will receive a pre-designed patient prompting document, or they are placed in the control group. The outpatient consultation will be audio-video recorded. Within 7 days of the consultation the participant will be contacted by telephone to discuss their experience. The purpose is to analyse the utility of a patient prompting document in improving patient understanding, increased patient empowerment and facilitating successful outpatient consultations.
Interventions
Intervention: The intervention being studied is a generalised patient prompting document or question prompt list (QPL). It is an 8 point document containing questions that a patient may want to ask their surgeon. (eg. what is the name of my surgeon?) It is an A4 piece of paper with room for notes. The document will be given to patients (see below) prior to visiting their surgeon by a member of the research team. They will be encouraged to ask those and any other questions they may have of their
Intervention: The intervention being studied is a generalised patient prompting document or question prompt list (QPL). It is an 8 point document containing questions that a patient may want to ask their surgeon. (eg. what is the name of my surgeon?) It is an A4 piece of paper with room for notes. The document will be given to patients (see below) prior to visiting their surgeon by a member of the research team. They will be encouraged to ask those and any other questions they may have of their surgeon. A typical consultation can last anywhere between 5 - 45 minutes. The consultation will be filmed to evaluate form usage and consultation dynamics. Patients will receive a phone call 1 week post encounter to assess their experience using the form, their knowledge of their medical issue post consultation, their satisfaction, and their anxiety. This call will be conducted by a member of the research team and be between 5-10 minutes duration.
Sponsors
Professor Guy Maddern
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
16 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Patient Participants Patients scheduled for surgical consultations from October 2021- March 2022 at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Any patient 16 years or older attending the outpatient surgical clinic, who has the capacity to consent to participation, and has signed and understood the consent form. Staff participants Staff participants will be eligible for inclusion in this study if employed by CALHN and any of the following criteria apply: a. Surgical Staff Consultant (including heads of units, academic consultant surgeons) b. Surgical Visiting Medical Officer c. Surgical Fellow
Exclusion criteria
Patient's who require a translator. Patient's with cognitive impairment. Patients who have visual impairment or are unable to read English.
Outcome results
None listed