PATIENT EDUCATION: PREPARING FOR AND RECOVERING FROM ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY

Abstract

The process of preparing for and recovering from orthopedic surgery is commonly overwhelming to many patients due in part to the prevalence of medical terminology, the complex nature of the procedure, the healing process, and the numerous professionals providing patient care. Medical providers typically spend only a small amount of time with patients: screening them for surgery, explaining procedure details, and addressing various patient concerns. In order to increase the understanding and compliance of the patient with preoperative and postoperative routines, patient education is usually employed as one of the strategies. The main idea behind patient education is to equip patients with the knowledge, positive attitude, and skills needed to take an active part in the care and improve their quality of recovery (Causey-Upton et al., 2018).

Patient education comprises three main components: the first and most obvious one is providing information on treatment, prescriptions, side-effects, risks and needed life style adjustments due to the treatment; the second is to prepare the patient for the clinic pathways and routine, like checking-in procedure, therapists’ schedule, visitors’ policy, etc.; the third is the establishment of therapy partnership with patient, where the target is to maintain patient’s involvement and activity in the therapy between the sessions. Often under-looked, yet extremely important are the first impressions and general clinical atmosphere during the first visits, which play a vital role as a trust-building factor, significantly affecting the initial outcomes, patients’ attitude, and motivation. From the patient’s perspective, even slighting the appearance of being under-prepared, lack of attention, empathy or clarity regarding instructions can manifest in an overall dissatisfaction with the service and professionals. The increased patient knowledge usually leads to a decrease in anxiety, enhanced rehabilitation performance and accelerated functional recovery after the surgery.