Health promotion and Education in the Emergency Department

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Survey assessing patients' interest and opinion in receiving health information and education as part of their emergency department admission

• IRAS ID

  188668

• Contact name

  Teodora Filipescu

• Contact email

  s1103718@sms.ed.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Edinburgh

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 4 months, 11 days

• Research summary

  Patients attending the Emergency Department spend hours waiting for and receiving medical care. This waiting time could be used to offer patients general health information and education that will prevent later health complications and illnesses. Before introducing such services, it is important to understand the patients’ perspective on this issue and how likely they are to engage with such a service.

  We would like to administer a questionnaire to patients coming to the Emergency Department. The survey aims to find out:
  1. how many participants declare they would like to receive general health information and educational materials during their emergency department care
  2. how patients feel about having the choice of talking about their lifestyle and receiving health education related to lifestyle
  3. who the patients perceive to be the best people to talk to about lifestyle choices
  4. what health topics are perceived to be of most importance to patients (issues ranging from chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension, to screening, vaccination, safety in traffic and general life coping skills)
  5. what educational materials (leaflets, videos, online websites) are perceived to be most useful

  While parts of the questionnaire assess the patients’ willingness to talk about some sensitive topics (smoking, drinking, drug use, being physically abused, driving unsafely), there are no direct questions that determine the participants to identify themselves as being active smokers, drinkers, drug users etc.

  The study will be conducted in the Emergency Department of a district university affiliated hospital. The data collection period spans over twenty 6-hour slots in September-November 2015.

  The survey is aimed at adult (>age 18) patients who are able to understand English. The participants will receive an information leaflet explaining the scope of the survey and their freedom to deny participation. Consented participants will be asked to fill in a 15 minute questionnaire addressing the above mentioned topics.

• REC name

  South East Scotland REC 01

• REC reference

  15/SS/0174

• Date of REC Opinion

  19 Oct 2015

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion