[Pre-surgical nursing visit: evaluating the effectiveness of nursing intervention and patient perception]

To determine patient satisfaction with the pre-surgical visit, explore the specific contents of interventions performed, and analyse their effectiveness in post-surgical outcomes.

A quasi-experimental, before-and-after, study was conducted at the San Cecilio University Hospital (Granada), in patients over 18 years. Patients in the intervention group received additional information on surgical procedures in a structured pre-surgical nursing visit between January and June 2008.

Of the 580 patients included, 41.4% were men, and 58.6% were women, with an average age of 56 years, and of whom 76% had received surgery in the past. The results of this study demonstrate that nursing interventions on surgical patients have positive results on, the level of anxiety, self-control of fear and anxiety, knowledge of patient care, comfort and pain level. They also indicated a high level of patient satisfaction with the pre-surgical visit. No statistically significant differences were found between men and women.

This nursing intervention not only allows us to give personalised and appropriate information to the surgical patient but also improves the satisfaction of these patients, having positive post-surgical effects.