The demographic characterisation of the nursing staff
The nurses' average age was 40 years, with a standard
deviation value of 12. All of the 19 participating nurses were
female. In average they spent 15.6 years on the surgical ward
during their work (deviation was 12.7). In relationship to their
qualification, 12 nurses had qualification registered by the
National Qualification Register, Three nurses were general
nurses and assistants, one participant had a college degree,
one person was nursing assistant and two people categorised
themselves as having other qualifications.
The evaluation of various interventions in connection with
causing anxiety from the nurses' and patients' points of view
A ranking order could be created on the basis of how patients
and nurses thought about each intervention in relationship to
the feeling of anxiety. Patients gave answers to the question of
what sort of a degree of own anxiety related to different
interventions. Nurses gave answers to the question of what
kind of a degree of anxiety patients were supposed to have in
cases involving various interventions. It is worth emphasising
that patients marked the interventions of gastric tubes
placement and catheterisation as causing the most increased
feelings of angina, while nurses answered the same question
by marking surgery and anaesthesia. The exact order can be
observed in the table below (Table 4).
In the case of Chart 1 below, it can be observed how patients
and nurses assessed various interventions relating to the
causes of the sensation of anxiety with the help of a fourdegree
scale. It must be emphasised that the nursing staff
evaluated each intervention with a higher value of anxiety
than the patients did.