J Nurs Acad Soc.  1984 Dec;14(2):38-46.

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Structured Preoperative Teaching on Postoperative Recovery

• Kim MS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of the structured preoperative teaching on postoperative recovery and to observe the effects of an structured preoperative teaching on the adult surgical patient's ventilatory function ability, the length of hospital stay, the number of analgesics within a 72 hour postoperative period, the length of early ambulation The research question investigated in the study was: What would be the effects of a structured preoperative teaching upon the adult surgical patients postoperative recovery? This study was based on a sample of 40 patients who were scheduled for abdominal surgery. They were assigned alternately to experimental and control group. Among 40 subjects, 20 were placed in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. Preoperative ventilation function testing of control and experimental subjects was done the evening before surgery and before the patient received the structured preoperative teaching. A structured preoperative teaching was given to the subjects in the experimental group only by writer. postoperative testing was done the 5th postoperative day. The data were collected over a period of two months, from Aug. 8 to Oct. 31, 1983. For the analysis of the data and test for the hypotheses, the t-test with mean difference was used. The results of this study regarding the four-hypotheses were as follows: 1. Experimental group which received structured preoperative eaching will have more increase to-cough and deep breathe as measured by his forced vital capacity(FVC), forced expiratory volume 1 (FEV1), maximal voluntary volume 15 (MVV15) than control group without structured preoperative teaching. The ventilation function ability was more increase in experimental group than in control group, the mean difference was statistically significant at 0.01 level. hypotheses 1 was supported. 2. Experimental group with structured preoperative teaching will have more reduced the length of hospital stay than control group without structured preoperative teaching. The length of hospital stay of the experimental group and control group were 11.90 days and 16.05 days respectively. However, the difference was not statistically significant at 0.05 level. Therefore the hypotheses 2 was not supported. 3. Experimental group with structured preoperative teaching will have more reduce the number of analgesics within a 72 hour postoperative period than control group. The number of analgesics within a 72 hour postoperative period of experimental group and control group were 1.65 times and 2.4 times. The difference was not statically significant at 0.05 level. Therefore, the hypotheses 3 was not supported. 4. Experimental group with structured preoperative teaching will have more reduce the length of early ambulation than control group without structured preoperative teaching. The length of early ambulation of experimental group and control group were 2.2 days and 3.6 days respectively. The difference was statistically significant at 0.05 level. The the hypotheses 4 was supported.

MeSH Terms

Adult
Analgesics
Early Ambulation
Forced Expiratory Volume
Humans
Length of Stay
Postoperative Period
Ventilation
Analgesics