Representative quotes about theme 2: discharge teaching, patient learning, and written discharge instructions
| Quote 1 | Nurse 2 | “That’s such a big thing, this piece of paper that they’re going to go home with and you’re going to refer back to and have all the numbers and their follow-up appointments. So, I make sure to sit down and really go over the most important stuff and break it down, and if they have questions, I make sure to answer them. And when they’re discharged, who to go to if anything kind of goes south or anything at all. So, yeah I try to take time to really go through it, to make it the most effective because it is super important.” |
| Quote 2 | Patient 10 | “Yeah, they trained me. The lady was really nice to train me on how to do the ostomy.” |
| Quote 3 | Resident 1 | “I know the nurses go through it, but I also don’t think the nurses even have a full understanding of all the things that are on the discharge instructions because they weren’t part of the conversation.” |
| Quote 4 | Resident 1 | “I think we do a really bad job as a field of explaining to patients all the things that have happened if they’re trauma patients or the actual disease process that they have with the (ACS) patients.” |
| Quote 5 | Nurse practitioner 2 | “I receive patients in the clinic on a semi-regular basis. Many times, they don’t have clear understanding of their instructions.” |
| Quote 6 | Patient 1 | “They gave me quite a few things to read, and all that. And when I first came home, I just kind of put everything aside a little bit because it was hard for me to concentrate and read all that stuff.” |
| Quote 7 | Attending 2 | “Sometimes there are discharge instructions in there that aren’t relevant. Like we have things like if you have an incision. I mean, you could say so that’s pretty clear that it’s just dot-phrased to every single one. I think most of the time when there are specific things that are relevant to that patient, they do get added in and talked about. But I think in general, they’re pretty vague and sort of blanket statement to cover everything and anything.” |
| Quote 8 | Nurse 1 | “I would say generally, it’s hugely improved from a few years ago. A few years ago, it was all on one page. It was kind of confusing. I’m not sure what kind of computer programs they used to put it together, but it just wasn’t very clear. The program they have now, it kills a lot of trees. They get a number of pages, but it is much more clear. You’ve got your medications all together and you’ve got all your wound care and your follow-up all together, you might have your appointments listed on the back all together. So I think that piece is much improved.” |
ACS, acute care surgery.