Before Discharge in Patients With Breast Surgery Information Requirement

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the information needs of patients undergoing breast surgery before discharge. Method: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 87 patients who underwent breast surgery at the general surgery department of a university hospital in the Western Black Sea Region between January and July 2019. Data were collected using ‘Patient Information Form’ and ‘Patient Learning Needs Scale’. In the evaluation of the data; Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann Whitney U Test, Kruskall Wallis Test and Spearman Correlation Analysis were used. Results: In the study, the average age of the patients was 45.5±14.2, 80.5% were married, 43.7% were primary school graduates, 82.7% were not working, and 55.2% were diagnosed with unspecified mass in the breast, It was determined that the mean time of diagnosis was 7.2±12.2 months, 60.9% breast biopsy was performed and 80.5% received information about the disease. It was determined that the total score of the scale related to the information needs of the patients was with 211.8±29.3 8 extremely important and the areas where they needed information were primarily; treatment and complications, life activities and quality of life sub-dimensions, that they want to get information at the most ‘How will this disease affect my life?’ sub-dimensions of life activities in the scale, at the least ‘How to go home from the clinic?’ sub-dimensions of community and follow-up in the scale. It was found that there was no significant difference between the demographic information and health status variables and the scale total scores (p 0.05). Conclusion: Since the demographic information of the patients and the variables related to their health status affect their information needs, it is recommended that the discharge education given to the patients should be planned considering the individual differences.