Aim:

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the anger states of the relatives of critically ill patients admitted to the emergency departments and the reasons for these anger states.

Materials and Methods:

The study was conducted at the Emergency Department of a University Hospital between September 2013 and January 2014; 202 relatives of critically ill patients who matched the inclusion criteria and accepted to participate were included in the study. The “questionnaire,” which was prepared by the researcher in line with the literature and involved the demographic characteristics of patient relatives and reasons of their anger at the emergency department, was used as the data collection tool.

Results:

It was determined that 29.2% of the patient relatives were enraged by the emergency department; 18.6%, about the registration procedures; 45.8%, about the treatment duration; 42.4%, about the deficiency of treatment; 13.6%, about the deficiency of medical staff; 3.4%, about the deficiency of the waiting environment; 49.2%, about the lack of information; 39.0%, about the lack of communication; 44.1%, about the irrelevance of the medical staff; and 57.6%, about the waiting time. It was noted that 32.2% would have decreased anger if the waiting time was reduced.

Conclusion:

Summarily, it is considered that making the required explanations to patients/patient relatives, providing large and comfortable recreation places where they can wait, increasing the number of medical staff, and approaching patients with an empathetic attitude will increase the satisfaction of patients/patient relatives, meet their expectations, minimize communication problems, and decrease anger levels.

Keywords: Patient relatives, emergency department, rage