Patient satisfaction with inpatient clinical nutrition services

Abstract

Patients who are unable to swallow or eat adequately for prolonged periods of time, and those who are unable to digest or absorb sufficient nutrients to meet requirements, become malnourished or growth retarded, suffer from a variety of physical and psychosocial problems, and ultimately die. With recent developments in nutritional support it is possible to improve survival and the quality of life of such patients by feeding them either enterally (using nasogastric, gastrostomy or jejunostomy tubes) or parenterally (using intravenous catheters). The increasing sophistication of enteral and total parenteral nutritional support techniques within the Clinical Nutrition Service has resulted in improvements in the clinical practice of such support in recent years. A study of patient's satisfaction with inpatient clinical nutrition service was undertaken. This survey was designed to explore patient satisfaction with current clinical practice in the management of nutritionally-compromised hospital patients in St. Luke's and Karen Grech Hospitals as the two main acute hospitals. To achieve this, the researcher used a self-designed questionnaire for the purpose of data collection regarding patient satisfaction with inpatients clinical nutrition service. A cross sectional study was carried out over a period of eight weeks where a sample of 75 patients was drawn from a total of 152 patients according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Primarily this study was intended to be carried out at Mater Dei Hospital but due to the fact that the migration date was postponed, and time constrictions to start the study were present, the study had to be initiated according to the targeted date. The collected data was analysed by means of SPSS Version 12.0. Overall findings from the questionnaire indicated that the clients were satisfied with the service. This was indicated by mean scores of> 2.0. Dimensions of patient satisfaction with clinical nutrition service also included staff interpersonal skills, nutrition supplements, perceived health benefits of nutrition care and staff personal skills. However there were patients who indicated dissatisfaction with accessibility and availability of certain equipment and nutritional feeds respectively. This was indicated by mean scores of < 2.0. Health services managers require good planning for better utilization of resources, monitoring and possible further studies in specific areas to enhance the quality of the Clinical Nutrition Service and to better meet the needs and expectations of the patients.