Women’s Satisfaction With Obstetric Triage Services

Objective To determine the satisfaction of pregnant women who presented at a triage unit in an obstetric birthing careunit with obstetric triage services. Design Qualitative descriptive with conventional content analysis. Setting Individual audio recorded telephone interviews with women after discharge from a tertiary care hospital’sobstetric triage unit. Participants Purposive sample of 19 pregnant women who had received obstetric triage services. Methods A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was consistent with qualitative content analysis with open coding to categorize anddevelop themes to describe women’s satisfaction with triage services and care. Results Five themes, Triage Unit Environment, Triage Staff Attitude and Behavior, Triage Team Function, Nursing Care Received in Triage and Time Spent in Triage, illustrated the women’s recent triage experiences. Overall the women werevery satisfied with the triage services. Women appreciated a caring approach from triage nurses, being informed aboutthe well-being of themselves and their fetuses, being closely monitored, and effective teamwork among the membersof the health care team. Conclusions The results indicated that a humanizing, caring approach by the inter-professional team offering obstetrictriage services contributed to women’s satisfaction and woman-centered care.