Surgical patient education: assessing the interventions and exploring the outcomes from experimental and quasiexperimental studies from 1990 to 2003

Objectives

To assess surgical patient education interventions and to explore the outcomes of experimental and quasiexperimental studies from 1990 to 2003.

Design

Systematic literature review.

Material and methods

Database searches were carried out in May and September 2003 on Medline and Cochrane Library files from 1990 to 2003, using the inclusion criteria of adult surgical patients, patient education in experimental and quasiexperimental studies, English language and nursing. Data analysis in September–October 2003 focused on assessing the interventions and the outcomes of the studies.

Main results

The database search yielded 32 articles involving 2723 participants. Most of the interventions concerned preoperative surgical patient education and focused on cardiological patients. The most common outcome measures were experiential related (87.5%) and cognitive related (59%). None of the studies measured social or ethical aspects of patient education. Half of the studies (50%) reported both statistically significant and non-significant outcomes. There were also a number of studies (41%) which reported no statistically significant findings.

Conclusions

Educational interventions may have many positive effects, but it is difficult unequivocally to demonstrate those effects. This review did produce some evidence on the effectiveness of patient education, but more rigorous research with strict intervention designs and measures is still needed.