Patients Understanding of their Diagnosis and Treatment Plans During Discharge in Emergency Ward in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Qualitative Study

INTRODUCTION: Many patients do not understand their emergency care plan or their discharge instructions. Patients should understand both the care that they received and their discharge instructions. Patients’ knowledge of the diagnosis and treatment plan is an integral component of patient education. The objective of the study is to identify and describe the areas of patients’ understanding and confusion about emergency care and discharge instructions at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. METHODS: A qualitative study involving 426 patients discharged from the emergency unit of BPKIHS using a semi-structured questionnaire. Cases who are Leaving against medical advice, absconded cases and those patients who came just for vaccination are excluded from the study. The ethical approval for this study was received from the institutional review committee of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan [Ref: IRC/0752/016]. RESULTS: There were 256 (60.1%) of men in this study. More than half of the participants reported not being able to read English. More than 90% of the respondents reported they could not read their prescription at all. While patient could point out their understanding of their diagnosis at discharge, most of them could not tell the names and the dosage of all the drugs prescribed to them at discharge. More than 95% of the patients could not tell the most common side effects of the drugs that they are prescribed. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to further explore the factors influencing the understanding of the patients regarding their treatment plan. Interventions to understand the health literacy needs and ways to improve the health literacy of the patients are needed.