title: Patients' perceptions of hospital discharge informational content.
abstract: Ensuring that patients' informational needs have been met prior to hospital discharge sets the stage for successful self-management of recovery at home. This secondary analysis study aims to identify differences in the amount of discharge teaching content needed and received by adult medical-surgical patients on the basis of their sociodemographic characteristics and hospitalization-related factors. The Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale (QDTS) is used to measure patients' perceptions of the amount of discharge-related informational content they needed and received. Eighty-nine percent of patients receive more informational content than they perceived they needed. Nonwhite patients report more content needed than White patients. Patients with prior hospitalizations and cardiac patients report greater amounts of content received. The QDTS content subscales provide a mechanism for assessing patient perceptions of discharge informational needs and discharge content received that can be used for clinical practice and quality monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Marquette University College of Nursing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA. Lynn.maloney@marquette.edu
authors.forename: Lynn R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.forename: Marianne E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000592:standards*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D012648:Self Care; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires