Nurses' Views on How to Best Design a Program to Prevent Adolescents' Anxiety in the Perioperative Period. A Qualitative Study.

PURPOSE: To describe the nurses' views for consideration when designing a program to prevent adolescents' anxiety in the perioperative period. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive case study using focus group and thematic analysis was conducted. METHODS: Three face-to-face focus group interviews were conducted in October and November 2019 in the pediatric department of a university hospital. A purposive criterion method was applied to achieve a sample of 19 pediatric nurse specialists. Data were organized and systematized in the professional software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis software (MAXQDA) and treated through the thematic analysis method. The COREQ checklist was used to report data collection, analysis, and results. FINDINGS: Four major themes and 14 subthemes regarding the perioperative period were generated. The first, adolescent evaluation, included the knowledge evaluation about procedures, signs and symptoms, and desire to be engaged in care. The second, caring adolescents and parents, means that nurses must be ready to care for both, use the opportunities to implement the nursing interventions, and manage physical teen space to accommodate adolescents in the ward. The third, nurses' challenges in the perioperative period, comprise the lack of time and trained nurses to work with adolescents, and the absence of prior adolescents' preparation and postoperative feedback. The fourth, nursing consultation, consists in promoting interdisciplinarity, developing the nursing interventions, and the main content to be included in the program's design. CONCLUSIONS: Given the challenges experienced by nurses when caring for adolescents in the perioperative period, nurses suggested a systematized assessment of the adolescent at an early stage of the perioperative caring process. Added to this is the nurse's readiness for the adolescent and parents, as well as the existence of trained nurses to evaluate adolescents and to implement non-pharmacological interventions in the perioperative period. A nursing consultation emerges as the most suitable solution to include in a program to prepare adolescents for the surgical procedure and help them to manage anxiety. This kind of intervention should begin in the preoperative period, preferably after the decision on the need for the procedure.

Adolescents' perioperative experiences in relation to inpatient and outpatient elective surgery - a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Perioperative experience can be very distressing in adolescence if not managed properly by healthcare professionals. In the clinical context, the emotional expression of the adolescent is less spontaneous, which makes the assessment of anxiety, pain or even the desire to be involved in the perioperative process, difficult. Listening to their perioperative experiences will permit an understanding of their difficulties and expectations, regardless of the surgical intervention undergone. AIM: To explore the adolescents' perioperative experiences in relation to inpatient and outpatient elective surgery. METHODS: Qualitative exploratory study, with thematic analysis approach. A purposive sample of 40 adolescents aged 14-18 years and in the perioperative period, from two paediatric surgery settings in a university hospital, was questioned from January to July 2020. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview and analysed inductively with qualitative thematic analysis. RESULTS: The data yielded one major theme, five themes, and 14 sub-themes. The major theme, Adolescent in perioperative period, included the five themes: (1) emotional and psychological aspects; (2) physical aspects; (3) social aspects; (4) organizational aspects; (5) previous surgical experience. Adolescents expressed fear of the unknown, anxiety, difficulty in pain control, and feelings of autonomy loss. Issues related to withdrawal from school and friends is also a focus of adolescent concern during the perioperative period. Despite showing satisfaction with the way they were cared for, they complained about the lack of pre- and post-operative preparation. CONCLUSION: There are aspects that should be considered when caring for adolescents in perioperative period. As far as possible, programmes to prevent adolescents' anxiety in perioperative period should be designed in a holistic perspective, with aim at the psychological, physical, sociocultural, and organisational aspects.

Ansiedade perioperatória em adolescentes: manifestações e necessidades de controlo. Revisão integrativa / Perioperative anxiety in adolescents: manifestations and control needs. An integrative review

Background: In a phase of development as complex as adolescence, the surgical experience is a great challenge. While there is some knowledge about manifestations of anxiety in children, less is known about manifestations of anxiety in adolescents. Likewise, the knowledge about adolescents needs for control of anxiety in the perioperative period is missing. Aims: To synthesize the existing research on the manifestations of anxiety in adolescents in the perioperative period and to identify the adolescents needs for control of anxiety in the perioperative period. Methods: An integrative review was conducted using a literature search in five different health databases. Only original studies related to the study topic were included. A six-step method was used to develop the revision and to analyze the results. Results: Of the 251 articles initially selected, only five met the inclusion criteria. A total of 114 adolescents from five different countries were represented. The manifes-tations of anxiety were grouped in psychological, social and physical. These manifes-tations were mostly related with fear of surgery, how would they deal with pain, body image change, anxiety itself and the separation from their friends. The needs were 'to be informed' and 'to be involved in the decisions about their own care process'. Conclusions: The adolescents have manifestations of anxiety and specific needs to deal with perioperative anxiety, which need to be taken into account in the planning of perioperative care. Further research is needed to promote the development of an evidence-based program tailored to answer to the adolescent's needs and to minimize their manifestations of anxiety in the perioperative period

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Patients with schizophrenia assessing psychiatrists' communication skills.

Communication plays a central role in mental health care. Yet, studies fail to address the adequacy of psychiatrists' communication according to patients' needs. We examined how patients with schizophrenia assess their psychiatrists' communication skills, inspecting the importance that these aspects have for patients. Thirty patients with schizophrenia filled the Communication Assessment Tool after the appointment with their psychiatrists. An external observer also rated the videotaped appointments using the same instrument. Patients' mean rating of their psychiatrists' communication was 4.28 (mean proportion of excellent, "5" scores, was 57.4%). "Treated me with respect" received the highest mean, whereas "Encouraged me to ask questions" received the lowest. The assessment by the external observer was concordant, though lower (mean = 3.39) than patients'. Psychiatrists' communication skills correlated positively with the importance that patients gave to the respective communication aspects (overall mean importance = 2.77). Main discrepancies were related with "Understood my concerns" and "Involved me in decisions". Patients who were non-married, with higher education level and in medical treatment for less time gave significantly higher scores to psychiatrists' communication. Patients with schizophrenia consider clinical communication important and their psychiatrists' communication adequate. Room for improvement exists, namely regarding more elicitation of patients' health concerns and involvement in the encounter.