Multiprofessional educational action reduces stress and anxiety in surgical cardiac patients: randomized controlled study

Objective: to evaluate the association between an educational action on stress and anxiety levels in patients undergoing heart surgery. Methodology: randomized clinical trial with 32 patients with scheduled elective cardiac surgery divided into two groups: Control Group (CG, n = 16) which received the pre-operative information according to hospital routine; and Intervention Group (IG, n = 16) which participated in an educational action carried out by the multidisciplinary team and associated with the routine of the hospital. Stress was assessed by the Perceived Stress scale and by salivary cortisol. We use the Hamilton Anxiety scale to measure anxiety. Results: regarding stress assessed by the Perceived Stress scale, a significant difference between the IG and CG was seen in the pre- and post-operative moments. In the measurement of salivary cortisol concentration, the mean in the IG was 2.88 ± 1.94 in the pre-operative phase, increasing to 7.25 ± 6.49 in the post-operative. The mean anxiety in the IG was 12.19 ± 8.10 in the pre-operative phase and 36.13 ± 13.24 in the CG, with a significant difference between groups (p = 0.000), which remained in the post-operative moment. Conclusion: the educational action conducted by the multidisciplinary team proved to be effective to reduce stress and anxiety levels in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.