Objective: To find out how surgical hospitalized patients who received care at operating room in Songklanagarind perceived the quality of perioperative nursing care and compare the perceptions in three periods: waiting room before operation, in the operating room, and in the recovery room.
Material and Methods: Patient data were collected by a general information questionnaire which included items on gender, age, education, income, career, as well as the patients' perceptions of quality of operation room care. This study was based on the framework of Leinonen, Leinokilpi, Stahlberg & Lertola. It was divided into three periods: waiting room before operation, in the operating room and in the recovery room. The quality of perioperative nursing care was compared between the three periods by analyzing the differences.
Results: The study revealed that most patients perceived a good level of quality in perioperative nursing care in the operating room. Analysis of the three periods of patient care quality revealed a statistically significant difference (at p < 0.05) between patients' perceptions of staff characteristics in the waiting room before operation and in the recovery room. However, there were no other significant differences.
Conclusion: Patients were generally satisfied with the quality of care they received, especially the quality of staff characteristics important to quality of care in the waiting room before operation and in the recovery room.