The Patient AS EDUcator in Anesthesia: Exploring the Patients' and Providers' Experience During Neuraxial Labour Analgesia

During the process of labour and delivery, patients may experience a wide range of events in a short time frame. This study focuses on exploring these experiences and aims to incorporate the improvements from these experiences so that in future, the expectations of patients delivering can be met as much as possible. Since every patient and encounter is unique, they might have a variety of experiences, be it during the labour epidural placement or during the delivery of the baby. Our study aims to explore the patients' perspective and learn about their preferences, concerns and suggestions regarding their experience and to then use this information to enhance the quality of future anesthesia care during labour and delivery. Patients who underwent labour and delivery and received labour epidural for pain management will be approached the day following the delivery, while their recollection of their experience is still fresh, and given the opportunity to participate in the study which will involve the completion of a questionnaire as well as an interview lasting approximately 20-25 minutes. In addition to interviewing the patients, the study will also involve several interviews of the obstetricians, anesthesiologists, and nurses with the goals of seeing how the patients' experiences compare to the providers' perspective of the care they are delivering. Following the gathering of this information and identification of potential improvements in current practice, a follow up study will be performed aiming to implement changes and improve the quality of anesthesia care during labour and delivery.