Effects of Transitional Care Program on the Anxiety Level and Rehospitalization among Patients on the Waiting List for Heart Valve Surgery
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Abstract
Purpose: To examine effects of Transitional Care Program on anxiety level and number of rehospitalizations among patients awaiting elective valvular heart surgery.
Design: Experimental research with a two-group pretest-posttest design.
Methods: The samples who were diagnosis heart valve disease (N = 64) were selected using convenience sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to the study groups with 32 each. The control group received usual care while the intervention group received the Transitional Care Program plus usual care. The instruments included mini-cognitive assessment instrument, demographic data questionnaire, anxiety measurement questionnaire and hospitalization data record form. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, Mann-Whitney U test and t-test.
Main findings: Most of participants in both groups were male with average age of 59.8 years (SD = 11). Slightly more than half of the participants were diagnosed with mitral valve disease (53.3%). The anxiety level of the intervention group who received TCP ( = 5.10, SD = 1.63) was lower than that of the control group who received usual care (
= 8.53, SD = 0.94) with statistically significant (p < .05). The number of hospitalizations in the intervention group (n = 2) was lower than the control group (n = 5), however, there was not statistically significant difference (p.05).
Conclusion and recommendations: Transitional Care Program plus usual care could significantly reduce anxiety in patient awaiting elective heart valve surgery. Therefore, nurses should apply the Transitional Care Program in their routine practice for this group of patients.
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