Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Pre-operative patient education is a key part of nursing consideration aimed at helping patients to clarify information about their operation, and what happens after surgery, based on patient need, level of knowledge, and patient condition. In every facet of healthcare, patient satisfaction is becoming a bigger priority. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the levels of patient satisfaction toward preoperative education and associated factors among adult elective surgical patients in Dessie Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was employed among a total of 440 study subjects selected by a consecutive sampling technique in Dessie Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Data were collected by using a pretested structured questionnaire and Data were checked, coded, and entered into Epi data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression models were used to identify the factors associated with the outcome variable. Both crude odds ratios (COR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with a 95% confidence level (CI) were computed, and a P-value < 0.05, in the final model, was considered statistically significant. RESULT: A total of 426 adult elective surgical patients participated in this study with a response rate of 96.8%. This study revealed that 82.2%, 95% CI: (78.2%, 85.7%) of patients had good satisfaction towards preoperative education. In this study, residents in urban areas (AOR = 4.303; 95% CI: 1.487–12.448), pre-operative education about surgery (AOR = 8.620; 95% CI: (3.672–20.235), insurance users (AOR = 6.165; 95% CI: 2.146–17.717), previous surgery (AOR = 15.416; 95% CI: 6.537–36.354), and patients’ duration of illness in days (AOR = 5.326; 95% CI: 1.839–15.430) were all significantly associated with satisfaction toward preoperative education. CONCLUSION: Patient satisfaction with perioperative surgical services was higher than that reported in earlier studies conducted in Ethiopia. Health professionals need to emphasize the rural community, patients with a higher duration of illness, patients with previous surgery, and preoperative fear. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00423-025-03802-9.