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 form containing five prompts to ask their surgeon, 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
The intervention (POWER form) is a is a 5 point prompt sheet/checklist given to a patient prior to their clinic appointment. It is designed to encourage patients to engage with their team and understand their clinical issues. (Please see a PDF copy of the form attached to this application in step 11 of this registration).
The five points on the form are:
- What is my medical issue (or what do we suspect)?
- What are the treatment options (or further tests)
- How does this impact my ability to w
The intervention (POWER form) is a is a 5 point prompt sheet/checklist given to a patient prior to their clinic appointment. It is designed to encourage patients to engage with their team and understand their clinical issues. (Please see a PDF copy of the form attached to this application in step 11 of this registration). The five points on the form are: - What is my medical issue (or what do we suspect)? - What are the treatment options (or further tests) - How does this impact my ability to work/eat/exercise? - What are the risks/benefits of treatment (or what happens if I don’t have treatment)? - Who is involved in my treatment and when will it occur? Once randomised patients receiving the intervention will be given the form at least five minutes prior to their surgical clinic appointment. The form will be printed and given to the patient with a pen and clipboard so that patients have the option of taking their own notes during the consultation. Patients do not have to complete the checklist but they are encouraged to seek answers to the five prompts prior to the team leaving their bedside. This clinic appointment could be pre-operatively, or post operatively, or for non operative patients. It may occur at any point during that patient's healthcare journey as deemed appropriate by the treating team. The patients will be seen by either a surgical consultant or fellow. 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 - The University of Adelaide
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 at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital or Royal Adelaide 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