Patients' Experience Before Cardiac Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.
Marina Ahmetbegovic, Ann-Cathrine Bramhagen, Haris Huseinagic and 1 others
PMID 41489185WHAT IT FOUND
Patients waiting for heart surgery during pandemic described loneliness and losing themselves.
They avoided burdening family, feared death, and said no visitors and staff focused on surgery information made isolation worse.
Key findings
01Patients waiting for elective cardiac surgery described loneliness and a feeling of losing themselves.
02They wanted to talk about illness fears but avoided burdening family, and pandemic fear made that isolation harder.
03In hospital, no visitors and staff who did not discuss feelings left patients more alone.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Patients were recruited from a single hospital, so experiences may not transfer to other settings. Twenty patients were analysed, and 17 were men, so the sample was small and may not represent all patients. Only elective cardiac surgery patients were included; emergency patients and those with cognitive impairment, severe mental illness or language barriers were excluded. Interviews were done at the beginning of the pandemic, so findings may reflect early restrictions rather than later care. Patients reported experiences from memory and current emotional state, and healthcare staff or family views were not included.
Declared interests
The authors report no funding and no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that talking to patients or adding psychosocial support improves cardiac surgery outcomes. The study describes what patients said during interviews and tested no intervention.