Expectations and received knowledge by surgical patients.

OBJECTIVE Here, the aim is to compare surgical patients' knowledge expectations at admission with the knowledge they received during their hospital stay. DESIGN The study used a descriptive and comparative design. SETTING The study was conducted on surgical wards at one randomly selected university hospital in Finland. PARTICIPANTS The sample (n = 237) consisted of surgical patients (traumatological, gastroenterological, urological and heart and thorax surgery) admitted to hospital during a 2-month period in 2003. METHODS The data were collected by two specially developed, parallel questionnaires: Hospital Patients' Knowledge Expectations and Hospital Patients' Received Knowledge. These 40-item instruments used a four-tier response scale and made a distinction between the bio-physiological, functional, experiential, ethical, social and financial dimensions of knowledge. The data were analysed statistically. RESULTS Surgical patients received less knowledge than they felt they expected on the bio-physiological, functional, experiential, ethical, social and financial dimensions. Their knowledge expectations and the knowledge they received were related to age, gender and level of basic education. CONCLUSIONS The results highlighted the need for improved patient education. Surgical patients expect to receive more knowledge than they actually receive on all dimensions. The most problematic areas in the education of surgical patients are the experiential, ethical, social and financial dimensions of knowledge. In particular, younger patients, female patients and patients with a higher level of education require more attention.