Background: An estimated 243 million surgical procedures will take place in the world this year, and 7 million will have complications. Patients set up for an elective surgery in an outpatient clinic may not be receiving the best education that could be provided. Several phone calls are received in the clinic regarding surgical expectations, and surgeries are being canceled for this reason. Being anxious or nervous about an upcoming procedure is not uncommon but may contribute to negative outcomes. Additional educational material may reduce the anxiety a patient feels preoperatively. EBP Framework: Orem’s theory of self-care allows for an individual to function and develop skills to regulate or manage his or her own care. Providing a patient with educational material allows one to be successful in this endeavor. Rosswurm’s and Larrabee’s model for change allows one to manage anticipated changes in behavior and allows for greater ease of self-care. To simply teach is not sufficient, but integration of skill is important to make a change. Methods: The objective of this project is to determine if patients that receive this educational literature have decreased concerns related to the surgical procedure. Tallies of the number of calls and canceled surgeries were kept for a period of six weeks. Three weeks before Education implemented and Three weeks after. The numbers were compared to determine if standardized educational material is an effective teaching method. Findings: Literature on the subject indicates that there is a correlation between education and improved outcomes. The findings of this study were that a decrease in the number of patient phone calls and canceled surgeries were related to increased education through material handed to the patient at a preoperative appointment. A reduction in the number of inquiries was seen at a rate of 49.2% and a reduction in canceled surgeries at a rate of 66.7%. Conclusion: Educational material is effective in reducing stress of a patient scheduled for surgery. By providing a patient with proper educational material the patient becomes empowered with the ability for self-care. The number of calls to healthcare providers decreases and improves the providers focus on additional healthcare needs. Surgery cancelations decrease, which is a benefit to patients and providers, time, and finances improve. Additional studies would be beneficial due to the decreased amount of information on the subject currently available.
