PREDICTION OF DELAYED OR INTERRUPTED RECOVERY AMONG ELECTIVE SURGERY PATIENTS: A NURSING PERSPECTIVE (DELAYED RECOVERY).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 266
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.
Description: This study was undertaken to determine if age, marital status, gender, perceived health status, satisfaction with family relationships and perceived stress had value as predictors of delayed or interrupted recovery among patients having elective surgery. The sample was obtained from two military hospitals that provided health care for retired and active duty personnel and their dependents (N = 119). The surgical procedures involved were cholecystectomy, abdominal hysterectomy, and bowel resection with anastomosis. Data was collected by self-report to printed questionnaires and telephone interviews.

Subjects responded to the 32-item Health Perceptions Questionnaire (HPQ), which assessed their self-reported health status, the Family APGAR to determine their satisfaction with family relationships and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Recovery was measured with the Edwards Recovery Scale (R-Scale), developed for this study, and with the Enforced Social Dependency Scale (ESDS). Data on age, gender and marital status were also obtained.

The sample was predominantly female (n = 98) and married (n = 106) with a mean age of 46 years. Abdominal hysterectomy was the most frequent surgical procedure (n = 63).

Subjects who perceived their recoveries to have been delayed or interrupted were differentiated from those who reported few problems during recovery. Using discriminant analysis 75% to 83% were correctly grouped with the poor recoveries. Logistic regression used these characteristics to determine the probability that subjects would experience delayed or interrupted recovery. Subjects with high PSS scores and low HPQ scores, indicating high stress and poor to fair perceived health, had an increased potential for delayed or interrupted recovery. Perceived health was the most consistent variable of significance after controlling for type of surgery. Perceived stress, marital status and gender also contributed to the prediction of membership in either the good or poor recovery group. For this sample, age and family function had little or no significance as predictors of poor recovery.

These findings have implications for the nurse in the collection of patient information at the time of admission and for the use of that information in planning for the patient's recovery phase that extend beyond discharge from the hospital.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: B, page: 1349.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1990.

School code: 0227.