Patients’ views regarding care received in an emergency department in the Limpopo province

Abstract

Delivery of quality patient care is of a paramount in the emergency department to all the healthcare professionals to improve patient satisfaction. The aim of the study is to explore patients’ views of the care they receive in the emergency department in the Limpopo province by means of Appreciative Inquiry. The Appreciative Inquiry process was utilized as the framework for the study to inquire about aspects of care received by the patients in the emergency department who voluntarily signed an informed consent. A qualitative approach was utilized since the researcher wanted to explore their views the patients related to care they receive. The research design used was descriptive and explorative whereby the researcher could describe the real situation in the emergency department as experienced by the patients. The identified participants were all patients visited the emergency department on the day of data collection. The findings of the study revealed that, the patients identified the positive and negative views from the healthcare professionals that influences the care received in the emergency department. The recommendations were for all the healthcare professionals to improve the quality of care received by the patients to ensure patients satisfaction.