Satisfaction among ambulatory surgery patients in two hospitals in Iceland

This study aims to investigate the level of satisfaction of care received among patients undergoing ambulatory surgery in two hospitals in Iceland, using the Patient Satisfaction Instrument (PSI). The PSI consists of 25 items, broken down into three sub-scales which measure the patients' attitude towards nursing care. The sample consisted of ambulatory patients undergoing orthopaedic, urological, hernia or varicose veins operations. The patients were 16 years or older and we enlisted 70 individuals from each hospital. Overall, the results show that patients are generally satisfied with the level of care they have received. The patients in group I are more satisfied than the patients in group II; however, only four out of the 25 items which were scored attracted a significance level of < 0.05. The patients perceived the clinical skills of the nurses as satisfactory but felt they did not receive enough information about their operation from the nurses. Although the patients were generally satisfied with the level of care received, they also identified instances where they felt that the level of care was inadequate; however, as results from other studies show, patients often experience difficulties articulating something negative about their nurses and the care they have received.