EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Patients' perceptions of their postoperative recovery for one month

Angelica Forsberg, Irene Vikman, Britt‐Marie Wälivaara and Åsa Engström

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2015, vol. 24, issue 13-14, 1825-1836

Abstract: Aims and objectives To explore orthopaedic and general surgery patients' perceptions of their postoperative recovery for one month. Background In general, nursing research in the postoperative context has been directed towards a single symptom or area, which is valuable. However, there is a lack of studies of orthopaedic and general surgery patients' perceptions of postoperative recovery from a short‐term perspective. Design A quantitative approach with a longitudinal design was used. Methods A total of 180 patients participated in the study. Data were collected using a standardised questionnaire, the Postoperative Recovery Profile, for self‐assessment of recovery. Descriptive statistics reported as proportions were used for the categorical variables. Analytic statistics were used to identify statistically significant differences. Mean values and t‐tests were used for quantity variables, and Mann–Whitney U‐tests and Chi‐squared tests were used for nonparametric variables. Results Overall, the orthopaedic patients were substantially less recovered than the general surgery patients. Two‐thirds of the orthopaedic patients and half of the general surgery patients perceived severe or moderate pain in the acute recovery phase. Within the general surgery group, there were significant differences in the recovery between the Gastric Bypass patients and colon/ileum surgery patients. The gastric bypass patients were overall more recovered than the other groups of patients. The Gastric Bypass patients reported that they had improved after one month compared to their own status prior to surgery. Conclusions and relevance to clinical practice Nursing support for orthopaedic patients must be improved, especially after they are discharged from the hospital. To structure and monitor individual recovery, a top‐five priority profile of the most important problems should be used during follow‐up calls after the patient is discharged from the hospital. Postoperative pain continues to represent a clinical problem that requires attention. Heterogeneity in the perceptions of recovery within the general surgery group was indicated, which may depend on the surgical procedure as well as the patients' expectations and comparisons with their lives before surgery. Rather than return to their preoperative levels, certain patients tend to continue towards a new or different life postoperatively.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12793

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:24:y:2015:i:13-14:p:1825-1836

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:24:y:2015:i:13-14:p:1825-1836