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Development and evaluation of a presurgical preparation program
1Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia.
Insights
Modeling alone effectively reduced presurgical anxiety in children. Adding child and parent coping skills training via videotape did not provide further anxiety reduction for pediatric surgical patients.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychology
- Surgical Preparation
- Anxiety Management
Background:
- Presurgical anxiety impacts children and parents.
- Effective preparation programs are crucial for managing this anxiety.
- Modeling is a common presurgical preparation technique.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of presurgical preparation programs.
- To compare modeling alone versus modeling with added coping skills training.
- To assess the impact of child and parent coping skills taught via videotape.
Main Methods:
- An additive component design was used to develop three presurgical preparation programs.
- Modeling was the basic component in all programs.
- Child and parent coping skills were taught via videotape as additional components.
Main Results:
- Modeling alone significantly reduced child and parent anxiety.
- The addition of child coping skills training did not yield further anxiety reduction.
- The addition of parent coping skills training did not yield further anxiety reduction.
Conclusions:
- Modeling is a viable and effective presurgical preparation technique for children.
- Teaching coping skills via videotape, especially to parents, may not be effective in reducing presurgical anxiety.
- Further research is needed to explore effective methods for coping skills training in presurgical contexts.
Abstract:
Three presurgical preparation programs were developed and evaluated in an Australian hospital utilizing an additive component design. The component basic to all three preparation programs was modeling. This technique was compared with the additional components of teaching child coping skills and parent coping skills via videotape. Subjects were 28 children between the ages of 4 and 13 years who were scheduled for elective surgery. Anxiety of both the children and parents was assessed by self-report and behavior observation. Results indicated that there was no further anxiety reduction by the addition of child and parent coping skills. Results are discussed in terms of the viability of teaching coping skills via videotape particularly to parents. Methodological difficulties associated with research in this area are examined.