Paper
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
664
The Effect of Preoperative Information Combined with Foot Reflexology with Aromatherapy on Unpleasant Symptoms in Post Opened-Heart Surgery Patients
Suthathip Kasedluksame, MNS, RN, Cardiovascular thoracic surgery Intensive care unit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to the effect of nursing therapeutic intervention on unpleasant symptoms in post opened-heart surgery patients. |
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to compare the effect of nursing therapeutic intervention and conventional nursing care on unpleasant symptoms in post opened-heart surgery patients. |
The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to compare the effect of preoperative information, preoperative information combined with foot reflexology with aromatherapy, and conventional nursing care on unpleasant symptoms in post opened-heart surgery patients. The subjects were 45 post opened-heart surgery patients admitted at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, and were selected by a purposive sampling. The subjects were arranged into a control group, and two experimental groups. The groups were matched in terms of age, sex, heart disease and type of surgery, regimen of analgesic and sedative drugs, and type of ward. The control group received conventional nursing care. The first experimental group received information “Pain relieving after cardiac surgery” before the surgery. The second experimental group received information “Pain relieving after cardiac surgery” before the surgery and foot reflexology with aromatherapy on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd day after opened-heart surgery. The instrument was a set of questionnaires including a demographic data form, and the unpleasant symptoms form. The unpleasant symptoms questionnaire was tested for the content validity by a panel of experts. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the unpleasant symptoms questionnaire was .95. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and pairwise comparison.
Results were as follows; mean of unpleasant symptoms score in opened-heart surgery patients on 2nd, 3rd, and 4thday after the surgery were statistical different among groups at the level of .05. Mean of unpleasant symptoms score in the group receiving preoperative information combined with foot reflexology with aromatherapy was the lowest. Mean of unpleasant symptoms score in the group receiving conventional nursing care was the highest.