• Lina Maward and Nazek Azar.
• Rech Soins Infirm. 2004 Sep 1 (78): 35-58.

AbstractOperation anxiety constitutes a significant phenomenon, detectable in numerous sleep related and psychological symptoms, as in its impact on the patient's health, the operation and post-operation process. For decades this problem (almost unknown in Lebanese scientific research), was the object of a vast theoretical project and numerous North American and European studies. Within the framework of this investigation, we studied the influence of structured information, provided by operating room nurses, on the patient's anxiety during the preparatory stage. The problem is all the more significant and relevant given that it is all but ignored in Lebanese hospitals. By adopting the basic hypothesis that "structured preparatory information diminishes the patient's anxiety" we wanted to examine the eventual links between the patient's anxiety level and his/her personal, socio-cultural and psycho-medical characteristics (sex, age, marital status, education, standard of living, medical history, type of surgery, type of anesthesia, etc.). Using the same methodological approach, we adopted Spielberger's steps in measuring anxiety after having acquired the proper authorization from Professor Spielberger himself, who furnished us with the certified Arabic version of these steps and their interpretation. A questionnaire allowed the identification of test groups' characteristics. We chose our setting the operating theatre at the Nini hospital in Tripoli, North Lebanon. Our investigation essentially began in September/October 2003. We formulated a sample of sixty patients within the operating community by means of a random sampling technique and a well-defined exclusion criteria. With the same technique we divided two groups of thirty patients: group A1 which was informed and A2 which was uninformed and used as test subjects. The data gathered by the investigation was incorporated into the SPSS software. The results of the comparative analysis operating between the two groups' anxiety scores confirmed the afore-mentioned hypothesis. However, these results did not establish any significant links between anxiety levels and the majority of the test groups' characteristics. By confirming the hypothesis that preparatory information reduces the patient's anxiety, this investigation has opened the door to important practical consequences leading to the following recommmendation: quality health-care in Lebanese hospitals would greatly improve by adopting a protocol of information booklets and preparatory meetings with the patient, with the added benefit of valorizing the role of the operating room nurse. At present, the absence of any structured preparatory information represents a significant deficiency in Lebanese hospitals.

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