Introduction: Perioperative care is nursing care provided
by perioperative nurses to surgical patients during the
perioperative period. Its role is important as patients
especially those who had undergone coronary artery
bypass graft (CABG) surgery encounter high levels of
psychological and physical stress.
Objective: To determine the needs of CABG patients
throughout the perioperative period and how well those
needs were met.
Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive survey.
A total of 88 patients who had undergone coronary
artery bypass graft were recruited through census
sampling. The instrument which was adapted and used
with permission for this study was “Survey of Patient
Needs and Experiences during the Perioperative Period’
questionnaire (Davis et al., 2014).
Results: The patients perceived the perioperative
needs in the post-anaesthesia care unit area to be the
most important (M = 2.89, SD = 0.06). Perioperative
needs which were rated the highest for each of the
four time periods were “Having information about the
surgical procedure itself”, “Having your family member
or significant other with you in the pre-surgical area
complications”, “Being treated with respect and with
dignity by hospital personnel” and “Having your family
member or significant other visit you in the recovery
room”. Overall, patients perceived their needs during
perioperative period to be partly met (M = 2.73, SD =
0.07) with post-anaesthesia care unit area being rated
the highest (M = 2.81, SD = 0.06).
Conclusion: The results of this study highlighted the
perceived needs of patients undergoing coronary artery
bypass graft surgery throughout their perioperative
period. In order to improve the quality of perioperative
care for patients, nurses need to take into consideration
the important needs identified by the patients and
address the items which were not meeting the needs of
the patients.