Anxiety in surgical patients' families.

The purpose of this field experimental study was to test these hypotheses. Videotaped preoperative information directed specifically toward surgical patients' families would reduce their state anxiety during the patients' hospitalization. Informative and supportive staff interaction with family members would increase their perception of support from the nursing staff. A combination of the above would reduce the family members' state anxiety and increase perceived support from the nurse more effectively than either of the above actions would singly. The subjects were 67 family members of 60 patients scheduled for major elective surgery. Anxiety was measured by the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, and perceived social support was measured by a modified version of Caplan's Social Support Index. The two experimental treatments were fully crossed in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Correlational methods were also used for data analysis. Findings in this study showed that videotaped preoperative information decreased state anxiety in family members of surgical patients, staff-family interaction had a positive effect on the family's perceived support from the nurse, and family member state anxiety scores were higher during the intraoperative period than during the postoperative period.