Cardiac surgery patients' evaluation of the quality of theatre nurse postoperative follow-up visit.

Theatre nurses at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Orebro, Sweden, have since 2001 routinely conducted a follow-up visit to postoperative cardiac patients. A model with a standardized information part and an individual-caring conversation including both a retrospective and a prospective part designed the visit. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of the postoperative follow-up visit conducted by the theatre nurses and find out if the quality was related to gender or type of admission. The method was prospective and explorative, including 74 cardiac surgery patients who had had a postoperative follow-up visit by a theatre nurse in Sweden. The instrument measuring quality, from the patient's perspective, measured the quality of the visit, and consisted of 16 items modified to suit the study. The results showed an overall high quality rating, with statistically significant higher scores for six items between patients who had undergone emergency surgery, in comparison with elective patients. When comparing gender, women had statistically significant higher scores in two items. In conclusion, this postoperative follow-up visit by the theatre nurse was a valuable and useful tool especially for the patients who had undergone emergency surgery. In the follow-up visit the theatre nurse creates a caring relationship by meeting the patient as an individual with his/her own experience and needs for information about the surgery, intra and postoperative care, and recovery.