Staff Nurse III Kaiser Permanente Livermore, California, United States
Disclosure(s):
Kelsey Curtis, BSN RN CNOR: No financial relationships to disclose
Description: The purpose of this project is to decipher if calming beauty presented prior to induction for surgery will decrease the level of patient anxiety in the operating room (OR). Adults are vulnerable to deep, ingrained anxiety and this can cause them to respond differently to anesthesia (Moerman et al, 1996). Art and beauty within healthcare contribute to the healing space as discussed within the Caritas Processes by Dr. Jean Watson. There is a "need for beauty, art, serenity, silence, calm, and space in which the souls of practitioners as well as patients/family can 'catch up' by experiencing the basic human need for space and quiet" (Watson, 2018). The circulator nurse conducts a pre-procedure verification and will assess anxiety level plus a voluntary descriptive word for how the patient is feeling. The following data will be manually gathered and analyzed: age, gender, surgery, choice of calming theme (beach waves, clouds, or forest), & permission for follow up questions. The data gathered with a developed survey will be analyzed by the project lead. This demographic data is part of the project lead's ongoing work and daily responsibilities within her role. Access to this information will not require new permissions. The adult surgical patient will be offered a choice between beach waves, forest trees, and clouds for beautiful video options in the OR. The chosen video will be played, viewed, and heard in the OR prior to induction. The procedure is standard of care to create a calm environment for patients within the operating room. It will be evaluated if beauty can be applied to a patient's preop experience to decrease their anxiety and see if there is a positive feeling related to the intervention. There will be a word cloud created for both preoperative descriptive words and postoperative descriptive words. This data will be acquired with a post-op phone call. The responses will be reviewed for general themes to indicate how the intervention has affected anxiety/fear levels. Moerman N, van Dam FS, Muller MJ, Oosting H. The Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS). Anesth Analg. 1996;82(3):445–451. doi:10.1097/00000539-199603000-00002 Watson, J. (2008). Nursing. The philosophy and science of caring. Revised & Updated Edition. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. Watson, J. (2018). Unitary caring science: The philosophy and praxis of nursing. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado.
