Preoperative teaching received and valued in a day surgery setting

AORN Journal,  March, 2003  by Mary Jane Bernier,  Dolora C. Sanares,  Steven V. Owen,  Patricia L. Newhouse

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Given the acceptable levels of internal consistency obtained for the 26-item PTIG, the researchers initiated a second phase of the study by recruiting additional participants to contribute reliability data and address the substantive research questions regarding the nature, scope, and value of preoperative teaching received by day surgery patients. The same procedures and inclusion criteria used for the first phase of the study were used to recruit additional participants for the second phase. To counter the potential for losing participants during the period of postoperative follow-up, the researchers recruited 66 patients to participate in phase two with the goal of accruing data on a minimum of 100 participants. The total number of participants was 116.

Phase two. The research questions for phase two of the study were as follows.

* What is the nature of the preoperative teaching patients actually received at a large university-based, academic medical center before same day surgery?

* What preoperative teaching is valued most by patients undergoing same day surgery?

* What is the relationship between preoperative teaching received and preoperative teaching valued most by same day surgery patients?

A total of 255 day surgery patients met the criteria for participation in both phases of the study, and 18 refused to participate. Table 3 lists the surgical procedures that participants in the study underwent.

The reliability coefficients for the PTIG after administration to 116 participants are presented in Table 4. The Cronbach's alpha for preoperative teaching received was 0.81, and it was 0.9 for preoperative teaching valued. Reliability estimates for teaching received subscales range from 0.54 (ie, patient role information) to 0.72 (ie, sensation/discomfort information). For the teaching valued subscales, the same two constructs show the lowest to highest reliabilities at 0.59 and 0.83, respectively.

RESULTS

Frequency distributions were derived for each item of the PTIG, measures of central tendency and dispersion were generated, and the correlation between preoperative teaching received and preoperative teaching valued was calculated. The relationship between participants' demographic characteristics and the receiving and valuing of preoperative teaching was examined using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

A demographic description of the sample is presented in Table 5. Almost twice as many women as men participated in the study. Racial composition of the sample resembled the demographic characteristics of the county where the medical center is located. The sample comprised 59% Caucasians, 18% African Americans, 21% Hispanics, and 3% people of other races. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 94 with a mean age of 45 and a standard deviation of 16. Although the variable of educational level was normally distributed in the sample, the variable of annual income showed a sharp positive skew. More than 40% of participants earned less than $10,000 per year, and another 23% earned between $10,000 and $20,999 per year. This distribution of income was attributed in large part to the mission of the medical center, which is to provide care to all people regardless of their ability to pay.