[Increasing patient family member satisfaction with information received from a post-anesthesia care unit].

BACKGROUND: Families of patients in post-anesthesia care units (PACUs), often feel anxious because of a lack of information on patient condition and post-operative care. Based on interviews with families, we designed a family information needs questionnaire to measure family information needs, satisfaction with information received, satisfaction with post-operative care, and level of perceived anxiety. Results of a questionnaire survey taken in March 2011 revealed an average satisfaction-level score of 75.5%. Factors negatively affecting satisfaction included lack of orientation information on the PACU, unclear PACU navigation information, and general comprehension difficulties due to anxiety. PURPOSE: A project was designed to increase PACU patient family members' satisfaction levels with information received. RESOLUTION: In April 2011, education material was developed that provided relevant PACU care and PACU orientation information. RESULTS: Improvements directly associated with this project included reducing the incidence of unauthorized entry of family members from 15 to 5 times per day, decreasing the average level of perceived anxiety from 3.4 to 2.2 (1-4), and increasing satisfaction from 75.5% to 92.5% (0-100). CONCLUSIONS: By providing education material in response to family needs, nurses can reduce family member anxiety and increase satisfaction with nursing care.