Parental satisfaction in pediatric daycare surgery

Abstract EN

Background : Pediatric surgery performed in a daycare unit has become the norm in the last few years.

Children need special care in terms of psychological stress during the perioperative period1.

There are many ways to reduce stress in children scheduled for surgery, including preoperative sedative premedication, induction of anesthesia in a familiar environment and “steal” induction in the mother’s arms2,3.

It is important to consider parental satisfaction while delivering a healthcare service to children.

Objective : To assess the overall parental satisfaction throughout the patient’s journey, including the preoperative, intraoperative and the postoperative periods.

Setting : Daycare Unit, Department of Anesthesia, King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain.

Design : A Prospective Study.

Method : Fifty parents were consented for the questionnaire-based study.

Children of these parents were posted for different types of daycare surgery.

The parents were asked to fill a form either in Arabic or English, before their children were discharged from the daycare ward.

The parents were given an 11-point questionnaire4.

Scoring these questions was based on their choice of 5 options including : (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) neutral, (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree.

Fifty parents had been included in the study.

Patient’s CPR numbers and telephone numbers of the parents were recorded.

Questions 7 and 11 demanded individual answers rather than box-ticking.

Result : “Strongly agree” and “agree” were taken as positive responses.

The majority of parents answered positively to the questions asked.

“Strongly disagree” and “disagree” were taken as negative responses.

Neutral response was taken as a parent’s wish not to comment either positively or negatively.

Conclusion : The majority of the parents were in positive agreement with the questions asked.

The majority of the parents were satisfied that the PAC clinic gave them enough information about the anesthetic.

The majority of parents were also satisfied with the amount of pain relief given in the recovery room and in the day-care ward.