A description of patient and nurse perceptions of preoperative teaching

While research has shown preoperative teaching to be an essential nursing activity, it has become increasing difficult to accomplish. Increased outpatient surgery and morning admission on the day of surgery have reduced time available for assessment and preparation activities including teaching. In this study, 116 postsurgical patients and 159 hospital-employed nurses completed an investigator-developed questionnaire. The statements were written to operationalize the five dimensions of preoperative teaching: psychosocial support, situational information, patient role, sensation--discomfort, and skills training. For each of the questionnaire statements, subjects were asked to: (1) rate the importance of a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from "not important" to "very important" and (2) indicate the preferred timing for teaching to occur: before admission to the hospital, between admission and surgery, or at the time of the event. Patients also indicated whether they received the teaching from a nurse. Mean ratings of importance for both groups ranged from moderately important to important with the nurses reporting the wider range of importance. Analysis showed a discrepancy between nurse and patient rank orderings as determined by mean ratings of importance. Patients rated the order of importance as listed above, which is parallel to the reported frequency of receiving instruction. The two groups differ in the ordering only in the placement of skills training. Nurses placed skills training second; patients placed it last. Both groups preferred delivering and receiving teaching between admission to the hospital and surgery. Independent t test results indicated nurses assigned more importance to psychosocial support and skills training than did patients; patients assigned more importance to sensation--discomfort than did nurses.