Study seeks to improve efficiency and increase patient knowledge prior to surgery

At the 30th annual Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) Scientific Sessions Conference, held recently in New Jersey, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s Nurse Scientist and Regis College Professor Margaret Oot-Hayes, PhD, RN, and the Weiner Center for Preoperative Evaluation’s Robin Kaufman, DNP, APRN, FNP-BCMSN, presented their new study, “iPad Education to Optimize Patient Education and Efficiency in the Preoperative Setting,” during one of the podium presentations.

The study, funded by the Kaneb Grant at Regis College, is designed to help improve efficiency in the Weiner Center for Preoperative Evaluation and increase patients’ knowledge leading into their surgery. “We found we were taking a lot of time out of our visits and repeating a lot of the same information,” says Kaufman of clinicians’ visits with patients in the Weiner Center for Preoperative Evaluation.

The team decided to record a video of preoperative instructions that patients can watch on an iPad before the start of their appointment with a clinician. “This way patients receive the information in multiple ways,” explains Kaufman. “First they see it and hear it on the video, then we reiterate a lot of it during their office visit and finally they get it in writing after their appointment. This method addresses a lot of the different learning styles. And it makes clinic flow more efficient as patients come into the exam room armed with more targeted questions and allows NPs to assess knowledge deficits to provide more targeted intervention.”

The study itself lasted six weeks. During that time, patients were divided into two groups: the control group received the usual care model and the intervention group received the new care model involving the iPad video. Kaufman says, “We measured patients’ knowledge of the information using the same tool for the control group and the intervention group. We also measured their anxiety and their satisfaction.”

The study found that the intervention was indeed successful in increasing patients’ knowledge after the visit and that patient satisfaction was not impacted by the use of the iPad. What was surprising was patients’ anxiety levels. The iPad group proved to have more anxiety than the usual care group.

When Kaufman and Oot-Hayes presented these findings at ENRS, they found their audience of more than 60 to be very intrigued. Kaufman says, “It was really interesting at the conference to hear people’s thoughts on why that had happened.”

Some suggested the increase in anxiety might be that people were not comfortable using the iPad itself, or that perhaps the video went into more detail than the clinicians normally would when speaking with a patient or perhaps the more knowledge a person has, the more they have to worry about. Regardless of the reason, Kaufman says, “The great thing about it is it’s feedback that will impact future work and help improve the care we give patients.”

In addition to the presentation by Kaufman and Oot-Hayes, Co-Magnet Program Director Helene Bowen-Brady, DNP, MEd, RN-BC, presented a poster entitled, “Registered Nurses Perceptions of a Peer Review Program in a Community Hospital.”