Educational impact of joint replacement school for patients undergoing total hip and knee arthroplasty: a prospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Enhanced recovery programmes for hip and knee arthroplasty surgery have been shown to decrease length of stay and improve patient outcomes in the elective setting. There are limited studies looking at pre-operative patient education alone and its role, however, more recent studies have demonstrated that it can help reduce length of stay and health care costs. The elective orthopaedic unit at Tullamore Hospital was the first unit in the Irish public health system to have a joint school, pre-operative, educational session, and the aim of this study was to assess our patient understanding of this session to ensure a sustained, high level of patient care, quality assurance and educational standards.

METHODS: A sample size of n = 51 was calculated to adequately power the study. Final sample size was 57. Data was collected across four joint school sessions. Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire before and after the session.

RESULTS: Twenty-seven male (47.3%) and 30 female (52.7%) patients completed the surveys. Mean age overall was 64.5 years. All survey questions except those related to anaesthesia and physiotherapy showed a statistically significant improvement after the joint school session. A total knowledge score was calculated and revealed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-joint school survey answering (P value < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Our joint school, pre-operative educational session remains a very effective way of delivering content to patients regarding their surgery. Continuous auditing is paramount to its success and there is potential scope for web-based learning as an adjunct to this validated session.