Postoperative Instructions Preoperatively-Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Teaching Model on Patient Satisfaction Regarding Instructions for Home Care

Patients in the ambulatory setting often receive home care instructions, primarily in the postoperative phase. Patient's retention and understanding of these instructions is one determinant of postoperative outcomes. This article highlights how we designed and implemented a teaching strategy to better prepare patients for discharge from an ambulatory surgical setting. Our methods included developing a day of surgery plan for teaching patients their discharge instructions upon arrival, creating on-line teaching videos, and revising post discharge pain medication instructions. We used our patient satisfaction surveys to differentiate patients who were taught home care instructions in the preoperative phase day of surgery compared to those who received instructions in the postoperative phase. Our results indicate that doing home care instructions before surgery is the optimal time for patient teaching.