The patient’s experience of participation when admitted for elective surgical procedures: an interview study

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To describe the patient’s experience of participation in their care when admitted for elective surgical procedures.

Materials and methods

A purposive sample of 14 patients who had undergone elective surgery was included in semi-structured individual interviews at a university hospital. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

One theme was identified: Creating a meaningful relationship to enable participation in the care, based on three categories; Abilities, willingness, and a lack of experience affect participation, A professional approach with an open communication and individualized information, and The importance of structural factors.

Conclusions

To meet the patient’s individual needs and wishes regarding participation, meaningful relationships need to be created between patient and healthcare personnel. The results also indicate that the patients have insufficient knowledge about their role regarding participation. To improve patient participation, its meaning needs to be clarified individually to the patient, emphasizing the importance to be active involved in his or her own care.

KEYWORDS:

• Content analysis
• interviews
• patient participation
• person-centred care
• surgery

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the participants of this study for their willingness to share their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study design. FL and ET conducted the interviews and analysed the data. All authors made the final interpretation. FL and ET drafted the manuscript which was discussed with and critically revised by MU and CN. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The ethical approval for the present study does not allow us to share data.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Notes on contributors

Maria Unbeck

Maria Unbeck, PhD, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Sweden. Her research is mainly directed towards patient safety and nursing and to some extent implementation science with a focus on development and evaluation of different methods to measure quality and patient safety. The research includes different types of study designs and data collection methods as well as different contexts. She is lecturing at first, second and third cycle programs/courses.

Filippa Lidgren

Filippa Lidgren, Registered nurse, holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Nursing - Surgical Care from Karolinska Institutet. She has several years of clinical experience working as a registered nurse at the Department of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at Karolinska University Hospital and is currently working at the Emergency Department at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden.

Ella Tabbakh

Ella Tabbakh, Registered nurse, holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Specialist Nursing - Surgical Care from Karolinska Institutet. She has most of her experience as a registered nurse working with patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden.