2020 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 96-105
Aims: The aim of this study is to explore the anxiety of an elderly orthopedic patients after bone and joint disease surgery about the time of discharge.
Methods: The participants were ten orthopedic hospitalized patients aged 65 years or above. A semistructured interview was conducted, and the qualitative data were content analyzed.
Results: The results showed that anxiety about the time of discharge consists of five categories: [whether any pain remains], [whether full recovery is possible], [being careful about posture and movement], [there are several things I cannot do] and [I cannot imagine what may happen in the future]. We also found five categories that affect the level of anxiety: [feeling of moderate satisfaction on recovery], [preparation for life after discharge], [whether a cooperating person exists], [the degree of self support], and [having a realistic purpose].
Conclusions: One of the orthopedics postoperative characteristics is the need to be careful in daily life about posture and movement, and continuous pain. In addition, it was revealed that this need greatly controlled the quality of life after discharge and affected the level of uneasiness.It is necessary to make interventions after assessing whether patients can imagine or consider the state and life after discharge, and to support and consider concrete methods and measures with them.
