Perioperative Health Education for Patients With Daytime Anorectal Surgery: An Evidence-based Practice Change.

Purpose: To develop and implement an evidence-based perioperative health education program for patients undergoing daytime anorectal surgery, and to enhance patients' knowledge scores pertaining to anorectal diseases.

Design: An evidence-based quality improvement project.

Methods: Adhering to the evidence-based practice model of the Joanna Briggs Institute, we developed 17 audit criteria grounded in the best available evidence. This evidence-based practice was subsequently applied to patients scheduled for daytime anorectal surgery between March 2023 and May 2024. The project progressed through three distinct phases: a baseline audit, implementation of practice changes, and a post evidence application audit. Specifically, we compared the execution rates of the audit criteria by the nursing staff, patients' scores on anorectal disease knowledge, patient satisfaction, and incidence of postoperative complications before and after implementation of the evidence-based practice.

Findings: After implementation of the evidence-based practice, there was a statistically significant difference in the execution rates of audit indicators 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 10 to 17 (P < .05). After implementation, patients' average score on anorectal disease knowledge was 74.14 ± 14.40, higher than the average baseline audit phase score of 63.67 ± 12.31 (P = .004). Patients were likely to recommend the hospital's daytime anorectal surgery to others (P = .036). There were no statistically significant differences in patient satisfaction scores or complication incidence between the two groups.

Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that the program may regulate nurse behavior, enhance patients' health knowledge, and improve patients' overall medical experience. Continuous quality supervision and audit should be further conducted in the future.