[Preoperative preparation and the quality of postoperative recovery in surgery patients: an experimental study]

The authors describe the methods, content and main effects of an experimental program in education of surgical patients. The material used was obtained in a study of 32 patients who had been admitted for cholecystectomy at the Surgical Ward of Veterans Hospital, Split. The program has been organized according to basic principles of a communication approach in controlling surgical stress via informing and teaching patients in pain control and other active coping skills. Informed patients (n = 16), in contrast to the control group (n = 16), showed better psychophysiological condition and less situational anxiety while facing the episode, and later, in the course of 5-day follow-up, they showed shorter, and overall better quality of post-operational recovery. In discussion, the authors call attention to the need of further systematic investigations concerning the quality and effects of patient education programs at surgical wards in Yugoslavia as necessary basis for implementation and standardization of such programs in everyday clinical practice.