Effect of preoperative educational counselling about routine elements of peri-operative care on patient’s experience through their first surgical journey: a randomised control trial

ABSTRACT AIM To investigate whether pre-operative counselling about non-procedural elements of perioperative care improves patient’s overall surgical experience, through their first surgical journey OBJECTIVE To study the effect pre-operative counselling about non-procedural elements of perioperative care in a tertiary care centre, on the care experience of such patients. METHODS 62 Patients charted for their first-ever surgical procedure, were enrolled for the trial giving an Interventional group (A: n= 32) and control group (B: n = 30). Surgical experience was recorded 48 hours after surgery on regional-language questionnaire, developed & validated by an expert group. Data was compiled in Ms Excel and Statistical analysis was done using R software. RESULTS Mean scores were compared with paired T-test. Groups A and B had a mean experience score of 71.78 and 62.93 respectively (Mean difference (MD) 8.85; P <0.001). Mean scores in preoperative, intraoperative & post-operative domains were 33.31 vs 30.27 (MD 3.05; P <0.001), 14.47 versus 12.30 (MD 2.15; P <0.001) and 24.00 vs 20.37 (MD 3.63; P <0.001) for the groups respectively. There was significant difference in surgical experience scores favouring the interventional group who recorded greater confidence and satisfaction with overall surgical experience and also separately for preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative periods. CONCLUSION Educating patients undergoing their first surgery about elements of perioperative care inherent to hospitalization for any surgery, has significant role in improving patients’ overall care experience in their surgical journey. Regularising such practice could improve overall surgical experience for patients.