Running head: RELIEVING ANXIETY IN SURGICAL PATIENTS
Relieving Anxiety in Surgical Patients
Jacob-Thomas Donida
University of San Francisco, School of Nursing and Health Professions
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RELIEVING ANXIETY IN SURGICAL PATIENTS
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Relieving Anxiety in Surgical Patients
A visit to the hospital can be a very nerve-wracking experience, especially if it were for a
serious matter such as surgery. Surgery is a life saving intervention, but it also poses many risks
that can therefore lead to changes in lifestyle. Whether it is open-heart surgery, open reduction
and internal fixation, or total knee replacement, surgery can cause anxiety and traumatic stress in
many patients. To relieve this anxiety, patients can choose to be given medication, receive
alternative therapies such as relaxation techniques and deep breathing, or forgo treatment
altogether. To find out more about techniques to relieve anxiety symptoms, my group and I
formed a question in the PICOT format. PICOT allows us to “provide an effective format for
helping nurses develop searchable clinical questions” (Lobiondo-Wood & Haber, p. 41). Using
the PICOT format helps us get the most out of our research. Therefore, our PICOT question is:
For surgical patients, how does alternative therapy compared to pharmaceutical care or no care
relieve anxiety symptoms during their hospital stay?
Last semester during our medical-surgical rotation, we encountered patients that were
either in the pre-operative or post-operative state. When talking to a pre-operative patient about
their upcoming surgery, he or she would be confused as to what was going on. The medical
jargon would make them anxious and their anxiety increased when their post-operative lifestyle
was discussed. When patients would come out of surgery, they would talk about how much their
life would change or about how others would see them. I found that most surgical patients have
anxiety because of their lifestyle changes. The nurse’s role is to lower the patient’s anxiety to a
comfortable and manageable level. The primary intervention I saw in the hospital was the use of
anti-anxiety medications, especially benzodiazepines such as Klonopin and Xanax. This type of
medication is used because it works quickly and is readily absorbed. There are not many other
RELIEVING ANXIETY IN SURGICAL PATIENTS
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alternative therapies seen in the hospital to relieve anxiety, and through our PICOT question we
are hoping to discover more about that intervention.
Though many patients in the hospital have anxiety, we chose to focus on surgical
patients. There is a lot of anxiety involved both pre-operatively and post-operatively in these
patients. Most of us in the group want to pursue a nursing career in the medical-surgical field,
and we believe that relieving anxiety in surgical patients would better their recovery and return
to a normal life. Nurses have the role of helping relieve this anxiety, assisting the patient
throughout the surgical process and back to a healthy life. Since the nurse has the most contact
with the patient at the bedside, he or she should monitor the patient and see if the medication has
a positive effect or if something could work better for them. If not, the nurse can determine if any
other interventions are needed. We chose the time period of their hospital stay because we want
to reduce their anxiety during their stay. By reducing their anxiety during the stay in the hospital,
it is therefore helping reduce the anxiety once he or she is discharged. This allows them to return
to their lifestyle and transition as smoothly as possible.
The topic of relieving anxiety in surgical patients is one that I personally take interest in.
Though it is natural for patients to be anxious prior to surgery as well as after, nurses need to
able to help relieve that anxiety. When I eventually become a nurse, I want know what
intervention would be better in relieving anxiety in these surgical patients. Will pharmaceutical
techniques come out on top, or will alternative therapies take over the role of care for surgical
patients? Through searching databases and selecting the most appropriate articles, we will
discover the technique appropriate for reducing anxiety for surgical patients.
RELIEVING ANXIETY IN SURGICAL PATIENTS
References
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2014). Nursing research: Methods and critical appraisal for
evidence-based practice. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
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