• Siobhan Dermody, Mary Hughes, and Valerie Smith.
• J Emerg Nurs. 2021 Jan 1; 47 (1): 66-75.e1.

IntroductionFailure to provide adequate discharge advice to patients on leaving the emergency department can lead to poor understanding of and noncompliance with discharge instructions and consequently postdischarge complications or hospital readmissions. The use of pictographs to complement discharge advice has the potential to enhance patient recall and comprehension. The purpose of this paper was to determine the effectiveness of pictorial discharge advice compared with standard discharge advice in the emergency department.MethodsA systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. CINAHL, MEDLINE, ASSIA, and EMBASE were searched from inception to March 1, 2020, combining terms related to the emergency room, pictogram, and randomized trials as appropriate. Randomized trials reporting on the use of pictorial discharge advice in the emergency department were eligible for inclusion. Outcome measures were comprehension, compliance with advice, satisfaction with advice and the ED visit, and reattendance rates. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess bias in the included studies.ResultsFour studies were identified as eligible and included in the review. Pictorial discharge advice improved comprehension, compliance, and patient satisfaction with the advice, but not satisfaction with the ED visit when compared with standard discharge advice. None of the included studies measured reattendance rates.DiscussionThe results of this systematic review support the use of pictorial discharge advice. However, few studies exist; none had a low risk of bias overall, and 3 were published over 12 years ago. This finding highlights a need for further research to inform evidence-based best practices on optimal methods for providing quality discharge advice in the emergency department.Copyright © 2020 Emergency Nurses Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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