Nurses’ Views on How to Best Design a Program to Prevent Adolescents’ Anxiety in the Perioperative Period. A Qualitative Study

Abstract

PurposeTo describe the nurses' views for consideration when designing a program to prevent adolescents' anxiety in the perioperative period. DesignA qualitative descriptive case study using focus group and thematic analysis was conducted. MethodsThree face-to-face focus group interviews were conducted in October and November 2019 in the pediatric department of a university hospital. A purposive criterion method was applied to achieve a sample of 19 pediatric nurse specialists. Data were organized and systematized in the professional software for qualitative and mixed methods data analysis software (MAXQDA) and treated through the thematic analysis method. The COREQ checklist was used to report data collection, analysis, and results. FindingsFour major themes and 14 subthemes regarding the perioperative period were generated. The first, adolescent evaluation, included the knowledge evaluation about procedures, signs and symptoms, and desire to be engaged in care. The second, caring adolescents and parents, means that nurses must be ready to care for both, use the opportunities to implement the nursing interventions, and manage physical teen space to accommodate adolescents in the ward. The third, nurses' challenges in the perioperative period, comprise the lack of time and trained nurses to work with adolescents, and the absence of prior adolescents' preparation and postoperative feedback. The fourth, nursing consultation, consists in promoting interdisciplinarity, developing the nursing interventions, and the main content to be included in the program's design. ConclusionsGiven the challenges experienced by nurses when caring for adolescents in the perioperative period, nurses suggested a systematized assessment of the adolescent at an early stage of the perioperative caring process. Added to this is the nurse's readiness for the adolescent and parents, as well as the existence of trained nurses to evaluate adolescents and to implement non-pharmacological interventions in the perioperative period. A nursing consultation emerges as the most suitable solution to include in a program to prepare adolescents for the surgical procedure and help them to manage anxiety. This kind of intervention should begin in the preoperative period, preferably after the decision on the need for the procedure.