Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice
Background Exploring patients' experiences has been used widely within healthcare to improve clinical service delivery. To date there has been minimal patient input of this kind into aspects of surgical site infection (SSI), such as surveillance or prevention interventions. Aim To obtain...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2013
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50779/ |
| _version_ | 1848798338575499264 |
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| author | Tanner, Judith Padley, Wendy Davey, S. Murphy, K. Brown, B. |
| author_facet | Tanner, Judith Padley, Wendy Davey, S. Murphy, K. Brown, B. |
| author_sort | Tanner, Judith |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background
Exploring patients' experiences has been used widely within healthcare to improve clinical service delivery. To date there has been minimal patient input of this kind into aspects of surgical site infection (SSI), such as surveillance or prevention interventions.
Aim
To obtain information from patients' experiences of SSIs to improve clinical practice.
Methods
Narrative interviews with 17 patients with SSIs (four deep, 12 organ space and one superficial) from three hospitals in England were conducted followed by thematic content analysis.
Results
Patients lacked overall awareness, concern and understanding of SSIs. Seven patients did not know that they had SSIs and, judging from patients' accounts, staff may have contributed to the lack of awareness by not informing patients of SSIs or downplaying their existence. The use of primary care resources was considerable and six of the patients were absent from work for two to four months.
Conclusions
SSIs have a low profile among patients which, if it were raised, could increase compliance with preventive interventions. This study confirms the appropriateness of using patient self-assessment post-discharge surveillance questionnaires to identify SSI symptoms, and highlights the need to identify total costings including to primary care, patients and the economy. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-50779 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:18:11Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-507792020-05-04T20:19:44Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50779/ Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice Tanner, Judith Padley, Wendy Davey, S. Murphy, K. Brown, B. Background Exploring patients' experiences has been used widely within healthcare to improve clinical service delivery. To date there has been minimal patient input of this kind into aspects of surgical site infection (SSI), such as surveillance or prevention interventions. Aim To obtain information from patients' experiences of SSIs to improve clinical practice. Methods Narrative interviews with 17 patients with SSIs (four deep, 12 organ space and one superficial) from three hospitals in England were conducted followed by thematic content analysis. Results Patients lacked overall awareness, concern and understanding of SSIs. Seven patients did not know that they had SSIs and, judging from patients' accounts, staff may have contributed to the lack of awareness by not informing patients of SSIs or downplaying their existence. The use of primary care resources was considerable and six of the patients were absent from work for two to four months. Conclusions SSIs have a low profile among patients which, if it were raised, could increase compliance with preventive interventions. This study confirms the appropriateness of using patient self-assessment post-discharge surveillance questionnaires to identify SSI symptoms, and highlights the need to identify total costings including to primary care, patients and the economy. Elsevier 2013-01 Article PeerReviewed Tanner, Judith, Padley, Wendy, Davey, S., Murphy, K. and Brown, B. (2013) Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice. Journal of Hospital Infection, 83 (1). pp. 41-45. ISSN 1532-2939 http://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(12)00283-6/fulltext doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2012.07.025 doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2012.07.025 |
| spellingShingle | Tanner, Judith Padley, Wendy Davey, S. Murphy, K. Brown, B. Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title | Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title_full | Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title_fullStr | Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title_short | Patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| title_sort | patients’ narratives of surgical site infection: implications for practice |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50779/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50779/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50779/ |