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| Important letter if you want to help |
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School of Nursing
Date:10/05/2005
We are writing to you about a survey we are carrying out into the experiences of patients and relatives/significant others of long waiting periods in Accident & Emergency units prior to admission to hospital. We are both lecturers in nursing and are carrying out this research in order to identify the effects of these waiting times on you as an individual and how waiting periods might be made more tolerable for patients and relatives/significant others.
You have been selected to take part in this study because as a patient or relative, you have first hand knowledge of the experience and are well positioned to identify the issues that will be addresses in this study. Your experience, evaluations and comments are vitally important to the success of the study and are crucial in identifying the experiences of long waiting periods in Accident and Emergency. In addition, by participating in the study, you will be providing a valuable contribution to the development of nursing practices that could ease the burden on patients and relatives/significant others as they wait for admission to hospital. .
The objectives of the study are to explore patients and relatives/significant others perceptions of:
1. the quality of care offered while waiting in Accident and Emergency for 12hrs or longer for admission to hospital
2. the effects of waiting on the study participants.
3. the conditions in the Accident and Emergency department, in which patients have to wait for admission to hospital.
The study involves participation in an interview that could take between 45-60 minutes. The interview will take place in a location suitable to you or in a room in the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies in D’Olier Street, Dublin 2, whichever you prefer. The outcome of the study may have no direct benefit to you. However, suggestions offered may be utilised to make future waiting times in the Accident and Emergency Department more bearable. It is anticipated that the findings will provide valuable information for managers and planners in relation to the discomforts encountered by patients and relatives/significant others of patients admitted to hospital via the A&E department. This information will facilitate the identification of measures that need to be put in place in order to promote quality patient care. It will also provide research information that will support managers in their arguments and recommendations for system changes within the health service.
In the unlikely event that you become distressed during or after the interview the researchers will provide support and details of local counsellors.
Your privacy will be maintained by use of a code number on the transcripts of the interview. Your name will not appear on any written reports or work relating to the study. The code number linked to your name will be known only to the researchers and will be kept separately from your name in a locked cabinet to which the researchers have exclusive access. Your name and the corresponding code will be shredded on completion of the study. You may withdraw from the study at any time without any recriminations. Ethical approval has been obtained from the Faculty of Health Sciences Ethics Committee, Trinity College Dublin.
On completion of the study, a short abstract of the major findings will be sent to you.
Thank you for your help and co-operation. If you wish to partake in the study or require further clarification on any issue relating to this study before you commit yourself to taking part, please do not hesitate to contact us. We can be reached at the above address and phone number.
We look forward to hearing from you,
Yours sincerely,
Margarita Corry.
Lecturer in Nursing
Trinity College Dublin.
Michael Coughlan
Lecturer in Nursing
Trinity College Dublin
24 D’Olier Street, Dublin, 2
Phone:6083008/6082695
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| Michael |
10/05/2005
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