Tool development for measuring caller satisfaction and outcome with telephone advice nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Quality
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Telephone advice services are increasingly utilized in healthcare.
• Evaluating the quality of these services is crucial for patient safety and satisfaction.
• Objective measures alone may not fully capture the caller's perspective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a questionnaire to assess caller outcomes and experiences with telephone nursing advice services.
• To gather insights into caller characteristics, call specifics, and nurse behaviors influencing service quality.
• To create a tool for providing feedback to nurses and informing program development.

Main Methods:

• Phase I involved an iterative, purposive sampling of 40 callers interviewed by phone using an emergent design to develop questionnaire items.
• An author-developed questionnaire was created and refined based on initial interviews and analysis.
• Phase II involved testing the draft questionnaire with callers to further revise it based on responses.

Main Results:

• Caller descriptions and evaluations strongly correlate with objective quality measures.
• The questionnaire gathered data on caller demographics, call details, and nurse practice behaviors.
• The iterative process led to a revised tool providing actionable feedback for nurses and administrators.

Conclusions:

• Caller feedback is a vital component in assessing and improving telephone nursing advice services.
• The developed questionnaire serves as a valuable tool for quality improvement and professional development in telephone nursing.
• Findings support the use of caller-reported outcomes for service enhancement and resource allocation decisions.