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Published on: August 1, 2019
Evaluating the feasibility of a web-based discharge education programme to improve general surgical patients'
Evelyn Kang1, Wendy Chaboyer2, Georgia Tobiano2,3
1School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University - Gold Coast Campus, Southport, Queensland, Australia e.kang@griffith.edu.au.
Objective:
To assess the feasibility of implementing a web-based discharge education programme for general surgery patients both prior to and after hospital discharge.
Design, Setting And Participants:
This is a prospective, two-arm, pilot randomised controlled trial. Patients who had a general surgery procedure were recruited from a tertiary hospital between October 2020 and January 2021. Patients were randomly assigned to either the standard education or the web-based education intervention.
Intervention:
The web-based education comprised of three components designed to enhance patients' knowledge, skills and confidence to improve their engagement with self-care, and the ability to detect any postoperative issues that can arise during the postdischarge period.
Main Outcomes And Measures:
The primary outcome was feasibility in terms of recruitment, randomisation, retention and treatment fidelity related to intervention delivery, adherence and satisfaction. Secondary outcomes were patient activation, self-care ability and unplanned healthcare utilisation.
Results:
Eighty-five patients were recruited and randomised (42 control; 43 intervention). Twenty-three (27%) were lost to follow-up. All patients received their group allocation as randomised and all patients in the intervention group received the web-based education prior to discharge. Postdischarge, patients accessed the education an average of 3 times (SD 3.14), with 4 minutes (SD 16) spent on the website. 28 (97%) of the intervention patients found the content easy to understand, 25 (86%) found it useful and 24 (83%) were satisfied with its content. There was a significant association between the intervention and patient activation (F(1,60)=9.347, p=0.003), but not for self-care ability and unplanned healthcare utilisations.
Conclusion:
This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing a web-based education programme. There was a high number of participants lost to follow-up, requiring additional attention in the design and implementation of a larger trial.
Trial Registration Number:
ACTRN12620000389909p.
