A comparison of the intensive care experiences of emergency and elective cardiac surgery patients

Abstract

Purpose: The study was planned to review the experiences of patients in the intensive care units (ICUs) and determine their states of awareness following an emergency or elective cardiac surgery.
Materials and Methods: This was a multicenter and descriptive study. Approval was granted by the Institutional Ethics Committee and informed consent for participation in the study was obtained from all the patients. The study included a total of 300 patients who underwent emergency or elective cardiovascular surgery and were then transferred to the ICU. Data were gathered from the demographic data form and the intensive care experience scale, which was developed by the researchers and applied through face‑to‑face interviews with the patients. The independent‑samples t‑test, Mann–Whitney U (Exact) test, one‑way ANOVA (Robust Test: Brown–Forsythe), and multivariate analysis of variance were used in the analysis of the data.
Results: The study included 300 patients, comprising 108 (36%) females and 192 (64%) males. No difference was found between the groups in respect of total intensive care points of emergency (57.9 ± 4.92) and elective (56.6 ± 4.58) operations (P = 0.32). The environmental awareness level and patient satisfaction of the elective group were seen to be higher, and the emergency group reported more bad experiences. Patients who had undergone emergency cardiac valve surgery were more satisfied (P < 0.001) and remembered more (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: Patients who had undergone urgent and elective cardiac surgery were seen to have had a relatively negative intensive care experience. When there was more environment awareness in patients with ICU experience, it was determined that as the duration of stay in the ICU lengthens out, the pessimistic experiences increased and ICU satisfaction decreases.

Key words: Cardiac surgery, intensive care experiences, intensive care experience scale