Preoperative ICU tours: are they helpful?

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Critical Care Medicine
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Preoperative education is known to reduce patient and family anxiety.
• The specific impact of preoperative intensive care unit (ICU) tours on anxiety remains unstudied.
• This study investigated the effect of ICU tours on anxiety levels in cardiac surgery patients and their families.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if a preoperative ICU tour reduces anxiety in patients and family members undergoing cardiac surgery.
• To assess patient and family member anxiety levels before and after an ICU tour intervention.
• To evaluate patient perceptions of the ICU tour's usefulness.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest measures was employed.
• Participants were assigned to either a control group (preoperative teaching only) or an experimental group (preoperative teaching plus ICU tour).
• Anxiety was measured using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and a visual analog scale.

Main Results:

• Both patients and family members experienced decreased anxiety after cardiac surgery, but this was not attributed to the ICU tour.
• The majority of patients who participated in the ICU tour reported perceiving it as beneficial.
• Most patients recommended the ICU tour for future patients.

Conclusions:

• While ICU tours did not significantly lower anxiety levels in this study, they are a common component of cardiac surgery educational programs.
• A majority of patients perceived value in the ICU tour, either currently or for the future.
• The findings suggest that patient perception of benefit may outweigh the lack of statistically significant anxiety reduction.