Effectiveness of a telephone follow-up nursing intervention in postsurgical patients.

BACKGROUND: Surgical recovery can be defined as the days required to initiate activities that maintain life, health, and well-being.

AIM: The main study objective was to compare the effectiveness of telephone versus conventional follow-up in postsurgical older adult patients.

METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental study with random sampling. Postsurgical patients over 60 years old who had undergone gastrectomy and colectomy were selected from 2 hospitals and randomly divided into intervention group (22 patients) and control group (21 patients). Data collection was performed from January to September 2014. The differences in surgical recovery between the control and intervention groups were measured at 48 hours, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after surgery.

RESULTS: Patients in the control group took significantly longer duration in the length of surgical recovery from the first to the second (P = .007) and to the third evaluation time points (P = .013). Patients in the intervention group had significant less impaired mobility (P = .003), need for assistance for self-care (P = .009), fatigue (P = .048), and time required for recuperation (P = .048).

CONCLUSION: Telephone follow-up reduced the occurrence of delayed surgical recovery.