Evidence and practice

Capturing patient experience to improve healthcare services

Joanna Goodrich Head of evidence and learning, The Point of Care Foundation, London, England

Beverley Fitzsimons Head of improvement, The Point of Care Foundation, London, England

Why you should read this article:

• To understand how nurses can use patient experience data to improve healthcare services and patient care
• To be aware of the characteristics of patient experience and how this differs from patient satisfaction
• To enhance your knowledge of the qualitative and quantitative methods of capturing patient experience data

National surveys of NHS patients in the UK have captured patient satisfaction with healthcare services for more than 15 years. Although this data has been valuable in tracking trends over time and for comparison between healthcare services, there have been issues associated with the concept of ‘satisfaction’ and the lack of clarity regarding the purpose of collecting such data. The shift in focus to capturing patient experience rather than patient satisfaction is regarded as a positive change, particularly for the purpose of improving healthcare services and patient care. This article defines patient experience and describes the various ways that this data can be collected, in particular using qualitative approaches.

Nursing Standard. 34, 8, 24-28. doi: 10.7748/ns.2018.e11177

Citation

Goodrich J, Fitzsimons B (2018) Capturing patient experience to improve healthcare services. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2018.e11177

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@goodrichjoanna

Correspondence

joannagoodrich@pointofcarefoundation.org.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Keywords :

data collection - management - narrative - patient-centred care - patient experience - patients - person-centred care - research - service improvement