In a hypothetical scenario wherein I have to assess patient satisfaction with health care services in a suburban primary care setting, there are certain ways I would go about collecting that sort of data. First off, I would need to assess my data needs; since patient satisfaction is such a subjective metric, I believe I would form a qualitative research design for this assessment. This would allow the patient to speak their minds and give answers that were not restricted to a specific metric they may not fully understand. If I were to do a quantitative research design, I would likely find a platform or metric by which opinions on various aspects of nursing behavior/efficacy could be codified and numbered for analysis; however, I feel that this is too reductive for something as subjective as patient satisfaction in this case.
The data collection instrument I would use for this qualitative assessment is a questionnaire that all patients would be encouraged to fill out at the end of their stay. This questionnaire would ask generalized but pointed questions such as, “How would you describe the punctuality and speed of your healthcare practitioners during this visit?” and “Is there anything you feel could have been improved about the conduct/effectiveness of your healthcare practitioners during your visit?” These would allow the patients to note their own thoughts during their visit, giving specific responses to various aspects of the stay. By collecting the data this way, it can be analyzed as an overall barometer of patient opinion, with perhaps some trends in phrases or value judgments taken into consideration when adjusting policy and training to help nurses continue doing what is lauded and curb the most common complaints.
References
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian K. (2011). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge.
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
