The impact of the coordinating nurse role on patient satisfaction in the emergency department: a semiexperimental study

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the role of an emergency nurse coordinator (ENC) in improving patient satisfaction at the emergency department (ED) in Tehran, Iran. Methods: This was an interventional study in the field of ED management. This study was undertaken in the ED of Sina hospital in Tehran, Iran, during March 2018 until April 2019. An ENC was assigned to the ED on even days and during the next week. Also, the presence of the ENC was switched to odd days and so on. Patient satisfaction was evaluated by a questionnaire. In order to analyze data, independent T-test was used to assess the mean difference in satisfaction scores. In addition, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test was utilized to assess the difference in satisfaction scores after considering age, sex and triage level as confounding variables. Results: Finally, 315 and 291 patients were allocated to the intervention (patients with ENC) and control groups (patients without ENC), respectively. The total satisfaction rate in the intervention and control groups was 63.9% and 59.3%, respectively. The mean score of total satisfaction in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group [115.1 (SD = 20.0) vs 106.8 (SD = 22.3); P < 0.001]. The ANCOVA analysis showed that age, sex and triage level were not confounding factors affecting the satisfaction score. Conclusion: This study showed that the presence of the ENC in the ED can increase patient satisfaction, especially in domains related to “diagnostic and therapeutic services”, “cleanliness”, “cost and discharge information”, “ethical and privacy issues”, “admission, discharge and management services”.