The effects of preoperative education on the thoracic surgical patient

Pain and anxiety are common among patients having surgery and education is essential in enabling patients to cope with postoperative pain and anxiety and improve outcomes. Since there is a trend for shorter hospital stays and a scarcity of supportive healthcare resources, patients will be required to be more self-sufficient. Testing of a randomized preoperative education program was conducted, to see if the program improves the thoracic surgical patient’s ability to improve their postoperative pain, anxiety and Quality of Life. This study found that there was no statistically significant difference in pain, anxiety or Quality of Life (with the exception of diarrhea) scores between the education intervention group and the standard group. There were significant clinical alterations in postoperative scores from baseline. Further research is needed to determine if other specific treatments for pain, anxiety and Quality of Life are warranted.