Promoting kindness through media increases patient satisfaction in an emergency department: a simple intervention to uplift patients and lower stress.

Introduction: One of the compelling reasons for healthcare leaders to nurture a kinder organisational culture is that kindness buffers stress by creating connection. As stress affects both patients and staff and increases negativity, burnout, distrust and incivility, the impetus for fostering kindness is much greater than just being nice.We have been deploying kindness media (KM)-short form videos depicting acts of kindness and caring-in healthcare. Seeing KM reduces stress and uplifts patients and staff in non-critical settings.The emergency department (ED) is a particularly stressful environment. In the ED, patients' personal stressors are amplified by wait times, anxiety and illness.

Objective: The goal of this observational study was to assess the impact of KM in a level 1 trauma ED. Two questions were addressed. Did KM affect how patients felt? Did viewing KM affect patient satisfaction with their care?

Methods: KM was displayed on waiting area televisions. Questions were added to the patient experience survey (Press Ganey (PG)) to assess if patients watched KM and, if yes, how it made them feel. We report PG topbox scores (percentage of responses as 'very good').

Results: 3176 survey responses were included in the analysis. Of these, 361 patients (11%) reported that they had watched KM. Of the 361 patients, 54% reported feeling more positive.In general, patients who watched KM had significantly higher top box scores across care-related questions stratified by waiting time satisfaction. For example, the top box percentage differences for 'overall rating of care' were 9%-27% higher in KM viewers (all p<0.001). Similar results were observed for multiple other questions, including 'Likelihood to recommend our ED' and 'I was treated with respect and dignity'. KM partially offset the negative impact of waiting time.

Conclusions: Viewing KM in this ED is associated with a positive shift in patient perception of their care experience.