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Study of the Relationship between Pre-operative Waiting time and Anxiety in Patients

Waiting time before surgery is one of the environmental factors causing anxiety in surgery wards. In fact, every patient is to wait before surgery and it is during this period that stress, frustration and anxiety are intensified. This correlational descriptive study is carried out, in two steps, on 100 patients hospitalized at hospitals in Mashad. Qualified subjects were selected through objective-based sampling and divided into two groups according to their waiting time; those with less than two hours; and those with more than two hours of waiting. They were given a questionnaire of anxiety scale the evening before surgery day and the morning of the same day, immediately before they are transferred to the operation room. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS. The findings revealed that mean anxiety level of the first and second group, for the first stage, were 41.7+10.5 and 40+ 11.8 respectively; these figures turnedout to be 39.7+ 11.1 and 46.7+ 12.8 respectively. T-tesi analysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups as for their surgery-day anxiety (P>0.001). Also, a positively linear relationship was found between anxiety and pre-operative waiting time (P>0.05, r= 0.36). As waiting time before surgery is effective on patientsʹ anxiety, we suggest that patientsʹ waiting time is given special attention so that their anxiety is minimized.