The Effectiveness of Health Education on Maternal Anxiety, Circumcision Knowledge, and Nursing Hours: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have shown that providing health education before surgery may significantly increase health knowledge and decrease anxiety in both patients and their family members. However, few studies have compared the effects on pediatric outpatient surgery outcomes of different health education instruction modes.

PURPOSE: This study compares the effects of two health education delivery modes on maternal knowledge and anxiety, the number of unexpected early hospital follow-up visits, and the time spent by nurses on health education.

METHOD: A quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest was used to compare the effect on the outcomes of pediatric circumcision of a multimedia compact disc (CD) and a printed material.Seventy mothers of children who underwent Plastibell circumcision participated in this study.

RESULTS: Both the printed material and the multimedia CD significantly increased the knowledge and reduced the anxiety levels of the participants. However, no significant differences in unscheduled early hospital follow-up visits postsurgery were found between the two modes of instruction. Furthermore, we found that significantly fewer hours were spent by nurses on health education for the multimedia CD group in comparison with the printed material group.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: In the current clinical environment of common staffing shortages, information tools may be used to cost-effectively assist and simplify nursing work. The findings of this study may provide a reference to medical centers that are working to reduce the time spent by nurses on health education for outpatient surgery patients. Furthermore, audiovisual health education tools are recommended to increase nursing effectiveness and save nursing time.