Pre-admission education in surgical rheumatology nursing: towards greater patient empowerment.

Aims And Objectives: This study compared the pre-admission education received by two groups of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients scheduled for hip arthroplasty. The specific aim was to compare these patients' knowledge about care-related issues and sense of certainty about that knowledge, empowering learning experience, length of admission discussion, length of hospital stay and number of health problems.

Background: Previous studies have shown that surgical pre-admission education is beneficial, but there is no evidence on the relative effectiveness of different methods of education.

Total joint arthroplasty patients' perception of received knowledge of care.

Background: The education of orthopaedic patients is an essential component of nursing, because it has been shown to have a positive impact on outcomes of care and treatment.

Purpose: To describe total joint arthroplasty patients' perceptions of received knowledge on discharge.

Design/method: Patients (n = 123, mean age 68 years) undergoing total hip or knee arthroplasty self-administered a structured instrument, including 6 different dimensions of knowledge.

Preference for information and behavioral control among adult ambulatory surgical patients.

This empirical study aimed to describe the ambulatory surgical patients' information and control preferences with reference to received knowledge. The results indicate that patients' information preferences and behavioral preferences are not very high, and they seem to receive most knowledge in the biophysiological domain. The most important finding is that patients with higher preferences seem to receive less knowledge than those with lower preferences.

Knowledge expectations of patients on dialysis treatment.

In order to be empowered in different situations related to dialysis care, patients need knowledge. This study describes the knowledge expectations of patients on dialysis treatment (n = 47) and selected background variables. The results indicated that patients expressed moderate knowledge expectations.

Health-related quality of life of day-case surgery patients: a pre/posttest survey using the EuroQoL-5D.

Aim: This paper describes and compares the perceived health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of day-case surgery patients before and after their procedures and examines some associated patient-related factors.

Method: A pre/posttest survey design was employed to collect data from Finnish adult day-case surgery patients using participant-completed EuroQoL 5-Dimensional Classification Component Scores (EQ-5D) questionnaires given 2 weeks presurgery (n = 131) and 2 weeks postsurgery (n = 131) in 2004.

Results: No noticeable change after minor surgery was found using the EQ-5D.

Ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients' knowledge expectations and perceptions of received knowledge.

Aim: This paper is a report of a study to compare orthopaedic ambulatory surgery patients' knowledge expectations before admission and their perceptions of received knowledge 2 weeks after discharge.

Background: Advances in technology and population ageing are driving up the number of ambulatory orthopaedic surgical procedures. Shorter hospital stays present a major challenge for patient education.

Expectations and received knowledge by surgical patients.

Objective: Here, the aim is to compare surgical patients' knowledge expectations at admission with the knowledge they received during their hospital stay.

Design: The study used a descriptive and comparative design.

Setting: The study was conducted on surgical wards at one randomly selected university hospital in Finland.

Empowering orthopaedic patients through preadmission education: results from a clinical study.

Objective: To determine whether it is possible to increase patients' knowledge and certainty about care-related issues, to reach a more empowering learning experience and to exercise a more positive impact on selected clinical outcomes by means of additional preadmission education (education using the concept map method added to standard preadmission education) than by means of standard preadmission education (written educational material with non-systematic oral education).

Methods: Elective hip arthroplasty patients were randomized into group A (n=62), who received preadmission education using the concept map method with written educational material; and group B (n=61), who received the written educational material and non-systematic oral education. Data were collected from both groups 4 weeks prior to hospital admission, at admission and at discharge using questionnaires.

Preoperative education for orthopaedic patients: systematic review.

Aims: This paper presents a systematic review whose aim was to describe the scope and methods of the current literature on preoperative patient education and to identify the effects of this education.

Background: Preoperative patient education is a common and important intervention in surgical nursing, yet there is very limited systematic evidence on its precise role.

Methods: The Medline, CINAHL, Eric, Psycinfo and Social Sciences Index databases and the Cochrane Library were searched, covering the period from the beginning of each database to April 2003.

Written orthopedic patient education materials from the point of view of empowerment by education.

Written patient education materials are one way of supporting patient empowerment. The aim of this study was to evaluate written orthopedic patient education materials (n = 25) drawn from a university hospital's electronic databank. In the absence of suitable tools for evaluation, an analytic framework was developed by a panel of nursing scientists and clinical experts.

Need for change in patient education: a Finnish survey from the patient's perspective.

This study aims to find out how hospital patients in Finland perceive and evaluate the education they receive. It represents the first part of a patient education project at one university hospital in which the ultimate goal is to support patients' decision-making and self-care and in this way to facilitate the independent empowerment with health problems. The survey comprised of 754 patients from 63 of the hospital's 100 wards during a randomly selected week in spring 2001.

Patients' learning needs after hip arthroplasty.

The purpose of this study was to describe patients' learning needs after hip arthroplasty and compare them prior to and 2 weeks after hospital discharge. Data were collected in two phases from 22 surgical wards in 17 hospitals in Finland using a Canadian Patient Learning Needs Scale (Galloway et al., 1996).