Author(s): Maryam Tolyat, Mohammad Taherirad, Zahra Janbani
Background: The prevalence of preoperative state anxiety is an unavoidable complication. Aside from its type and scope, the surgical operation is considered as a severely stressful situation for patients. Considering the importance of reducing the anxiety in patients undergoing surgery, the aim of the current study was to compare the effect of written and planned training on the state anxiety state among patients undergoing orthopedic surgery. Methods:In this study, 81 patients candidate for orthopedic surgery were selected using convenience sampling and were randomly divided into 3 groups, including planned training, pamphlet, and control groups. All patients answered 20 Questions-State-Traits Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaire before surgery, and the intervention was later carried out in the planned training and pamphlet groups. Then the effect of preoperative anxiety state was re-evaluated about half an hour after training in three groups. For data were analyzed by SPSS16 using independent t-test and ANOVA. Results: The results of comparing pre- and post-training mean score of the anxiety in three groups showed that the mean score of anxiety reached from 50.41 to 41.03, 52.41 to 44.37 and 45.04 to 50.56 in planned, pamphlet and control groups, respectively. ANOVA test showed that there was a significant difference in this comparison. The results of Tukey’s test also revealed that the mean score of anxiety in the planned and pamphlet groups significantly was lower than the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Based on our findings, the planned training method was more efficient in decreasing anxiety among patients compared to the pamphlet group before orthopedic surgery. Therefore, considering the fact that nurses play a major role in examining and relieving the anxiety among patients and spend more time with patients undergoing surgery compared with other members of the healthcare team, the planned training method must be considered to ensure effective support to reduce the preoperative anxiety among patients