The effect of two preoperative nurse-patient communications on postoperative patient welfare.

This study attempted to determine if the condition of patients receiving special preoperative nurse-patient communications were different postoperatively from those without the communication. Informative communications to 15 patients and social communications to 13 patients were compared with no special communications to 17 patients. Postoperative differences measured were nausea, vomiting, use of analgesic, antiemetic medication, change in blood pressure, and length of postoperative stay. Significant differences found by comparing the three groups were as follows: (a) patients receiving informative communication had significantly less postoperative nausea, vomiting, antiemetic medication, analgesic medication, blood pressure variation, and a shorter postoperative hospitalization than those receiving no special communication; (b) patient receiving social communication had less need for analgesic medication than patients receiving no special communication.