Discussion
Twenty-one percent of the analysed patients belonged to the
category of anxious cases and 12% were in the category of
marginal cases. The mean value of their feeling of anxiety was
6.7 and its deviation was 4.3.
In the context of a Sri Lankan study, a hundred patients'
feelings regarding preoperative anxiety were analysed. In the
cases involvingthis examined sample, the frequency of the
occurrence of anxiety was 76.7% [2]. It is obviuos that this
number is much higher than the results of our research; even if
in this latest case patients waiting for only minor abdominal
surgeries were investigated. Contrary to this, in the Sri Lankan
survey, patients waiting for minor and major surgerical
procedures took part (in particular, 31 major surgeries and
66 minor operations), and in addition, this difference could be
the result of individual differences between the characteristics
of these two countries.
On the basis of the results of another survey, it could be
additionally stated that 18.9% of the examined patients were
considered to belong to the so-called angina cases (31% of
female participants and 10.6% of male patients) [6]. This result
approaches the result of 21% shown in our research.
In the context of our own preliminary study, the test of
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory created by Spielberger was
applied in order to be able to assess the feeling of anxiety in
cases of patients hospitalised in the surgical ward. Questionnaires
were
filled in after surgery. Patients' feeling of
anxiety was under the mean value [15]. It is worth mentioning
that in relationship to the examination of patients' feelings
of preoperative anxiety, values below the mean were also
received.
On the basis of our hypothesis referring to the statement
that ‘‘the mean value of patients' feeling of anxiety is
increased before surgery than its standard mean value’’, it
must be stated that it could not be proven.
The only factor that significantly connected to a patients'
anxiety involved who that person was living with. Those who
were single had the least amount of the feeling of anxiety,
and they were followed by patients who had a family. The
most increased sensation of angina involved those who
were married. On the basis of our hypothesis relating to the
statement that ‘‘religiousness has a greater influence on
the degree of anxiety than marital status, previous surgery
or the fact with whom the patient is living with do’’. It must
be stated that this could not be proven.
In connection with how various interventions influenced
the patients' feelings of anxiety, patients marked nursing
interventions (the assistance of a gastric tube or catheterisa-
tion) as being the most anxious, while the nursing staff
thought the same about surgery and anaesthesia, which did
not belong to the task of nurses working on the analysed ward.
It can be assumed that patients made their decisions on the
basis of what those interventions were that caused the most
feelings of stress for them or which threatened their human
dignity. Nurses could probably come to a decision on the basis
of what those interventions were that were thought to have
the most risks or which could threaten the patients' health
condition or lives. Besides these facts, a further explanation