Aim: To investigate the hypothesis: 'Patients who receive encouragement during visual acuity testing achieve better scores than patients who receive no encouragement'.
Method: Fifty patients were randomly selected from general eye clinics with five exclusions. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent comparison before/after design was used to consider the way patients' vision is tested using the Snellen visual acuity chart in the eye department at Kettering General Hospital.
Results: The results were significant (t = 5.78 df=49 p < 0.001) and supported the initial hypothesis that 'patients who receive encouragement during visual acuity testing achieve better scores than patients who receive no encouragement'.
Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that the subjects did get better visual acuity scores when encouragement was used and recommendations were made to change the clinic protocol.