The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of pre-operational nursing information on the anxiety experienced by open heart surgery patients during their stay at the ICU.
Thirty four patients hospitalized to the D hospital in Taegu metropolitan area from June to September, 1998, were participated in this study. Seventeen patients as the experimental group, have received detailed nursing information on the operational procedures and post-operational cares, whereas the rest as the control group, have received conventional nursing care only.
Anxiety experienced by patients were measured by Spielberger´s State-Trait anxiety Inventory and analyzed by SAS statistical program.
The results were as follows:
General characteristics of the sample included age, sex, marital status, education religion, occupation, income, and patient´s knowledge on the open heart surgery. In testing sample homogeneity, no significant differences were observed between the experimental group and the control.
The experimental group who received detailed nursing information on the open heart surgery procedures and expected post-operational care prior to surgery responded significantly less anxiety compared to the control group(F=80.41, p=.000).
In conclusion, a through nursing information on the operational procedures and post-operational care is apparently effective in lessening patient´s anxiety and could contribute to the recovery of the patients.
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