Exploring the Family Expectation of Patients Undergoing Surgery: A Qualitative Study

Background and Objectives: Accompanying the patients' family members in hospital creates feeling of empathy, safety of and help with fulfilling their expectations. Because both the patients and careers suffer from high stress due to lack of awareness about medical condition and treatment process. It is important for health system to understsand the expectations of patients and family members to be responsive and fullfill it correctly. This study was conducted to discover the patients carers (family members) experiences and expectation of patients undergoing surgery.

Material and Methods: This qualitative phenomenological study was performed on 15 family members of patients undergoing surgery by purposive sampling until complete saturation of information. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and recorded using word software. Items were extracted and qualitative content analysis method was used to analyze the data.

Results: By analyzing the data, the main theme is "anxious minutes" and 5 main categories including "associated internal conflicts, behavioral changes while waiting, concerns about the prognosis of surgery, concerns about the outcome of the treatment process, and doubts about Hospital components" were extracted.

Conclusion: While waiting for the end of the surgery, families experience many anxieties and worries about the patient's health and the treatment process. Considering the concerns of the patient's companions with principled planning, appropriate and practical interventions can improve the mental health of families and improve the quality of patient care.