Developing guidelines for caring for patients before returning home to the outpatient department of Srisongkram Hospital

Abstract

Developing guidelines for caring for patients before returning home to the outpatient department of Srisongkram Hospital is qualitative research. The objective is to study the situation and develop guidelines for caring for patients before returning home to Srisongkram Hospital. The sample group consisted of patients from birth to 60 years. The research tools were a personal data questionnaire, group discussion questions, in-depth interviews, audio recording equipment, a knowledge test for stomach dyspapsia, gout, and high fever in children under 5 years of age. Test the quality of the tools with 3 qualified experts. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .70, .74, and .80, respectively. Data were collected from December 15, 2017 - December 15, 2019. The data were analyzed quantitatively with frequency distribution and qualitatively with content analysis and triangulated for reliability. The research found that patients lack proper assessment of needs and knowledge, including a lack of information transfer between agencies. The researcher therefore developed patient education for 3 diseases: dyspapsia, gout, and high fever in children under 5 years of age. The results of the first phase of the evaluation found that patients with 3 diseases had an average knowledge level of 3.9, 4.8, and 4.5, respectively. The researcher therefore adjusted the method for reflecting the data and evaluating the second phase, finding that the knowledge averages increased to 5.0, 5.0, and 4.9, respectively.  The findings from this research can be used as a guideline to educate other patient groups at Srisongkram Hospital. The results of this study were disseminated to community hospitals and subdistrict health promotion hospitals as a guideline for educating other groups of patients.