Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Initiatives in the Acute Care Setting
A Study to Assess the Effect of Preoperative Instructions and Therapeutic Touch on Postoperative Recovery Measures of Patients Undergoing Elective Abdominal Surgery
Nirmal Kaur, MSc, MA, Guru Nanak College of Nursing, Guru Nanak Mission Medical & Educational Trust, Distt. Nawanshahr, Punjab, India
Learning Objective #1: Impart knowledge regarding preoperative instructions and effective therapeutic touch to postoperative clients
Learning Objective #2: Encourage the clients undergoing surgery to share their views and queries on postoperative recovery measures
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Whenever a patient is admitted in a hospital especially for surgery, he has many fears and anxieties in his mind about postoperative pain, wound healing and days in hospital after surgery. The presence of a skilled person strengthens communication to reduce their apprehension, anxiety, worry and tension. Studies have shown that preoperative instructions and therapeutic touch is useful in reducing pain, improving wound healing, aiding relaxation and easing the dying process. OBJECTIVES: To assess and compare the postoperative recovery measures in experimental group who received preoperative instructions and therapeutic touch with control group. METHODS: A quasi-experimental research design was used. Purposive convenient sample consists of 40 subjects, 20 in each experimental and control group. The data was collected by interview method, with the help of self-structured tool a personnel data questionnaire and also on postoperative recovery measures with 5 items. The subjects of both experimental and control group were interviewed on first, third and day of discharge. Therapeutic touch was given only to experimental group whereas vital signs of both the groups were checked on first, third and day of discharge. The data was analyzed in terms of ratio and proportion, percentage, mean, S.D. and unpaired 't' test. RESULTS: Data analysis showed that the patients who were being admitted for elective abdominal surgery have great amount of stress and restlessness. There was a significant improvement (P<0.001) in postoperative recovery measures after the introduction of preoperative instructions and therapeutic touch. Therefore, it concludes that the patient who received preoperative instructions and therapeutic touch postoperatively had stable vital signs, less analgesics, experience less nausea and vomiting and fewer days of hospitalization. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that preoperative instructions and therapeutic touch is an extremely effective modality to enhance the early recovery of subjects undergoing abdominal surgery.

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