Patients' needs and their coping strategies transition to cardiac surgery

Little data are available concerning Taiwanese patients' needs and the factors contributing to their needs before cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to explore the components, nature and definition of patients' needs and their coping strategies of preparation for cardiac surgery during admission transition from patients' perspectives. The admission transition in this study means the patients' stay in the cardiovascular floor unit before surgery. Thirty adult patients (15 men, 15 women) having cardiac surgery were theoretically sampled from three hospitals in Taipei, Taiwan. Data were obtained through a semi-structured interview with the investigator and were analyzed by employing the combination of strategies from grounded theory, qualitative content analysis, linking data, and constant comparison. Ninety percent of participants expressed two types of needs: certain- including met, unmet and expectant needs, and uncertain needs. Needs that participants believed to have been met were the needs for security, maintaining daily living activities, understanding the surgery and recovery process, the needs for optimal physical condition for surgery, receiving quality treatment, and coaching as to use of medical instruments. The unmet needs were the needs for maintaining daily activities, security, fulfilling unfinished family responsibilities, financial support, understanding the surgery and what to expect during the recovery process, freedom from pain, family members' companionship, and spiritual support. The expectant needs included those needs during the ICU and discharge-preparation recovery transitions, throughout the hospitalization and after recovery. The components, nature, definition, reasons, and suggestions for patients' needs and their coping strategies were delineated and discussed. Finally, a conceptual framework was developed to describe and depict this phenomenon.