Effectiveness of a telephone follow‐up nursing intervention in postsurgical patients

Background Surgical recovery can be defined as the days required to initiate activities that maintain life, health, and well‐being. Aim The main study objective was to compare the effectiveness of telephone versus conventional follow‐up in postsurgical older adult patients. Methods This is a quasi‐experimental study with random sampling. Postsurgical patients over 60 years old who had undergone gastrectomy and colectomy were selected from 2 hospitals and randomly divided into intervention group (22 patients) and control group (21 patients). Data collection was performed from January to September 2014. The differences in surgical recovery between the control and intervention groups were measured at 48 hours, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after surgery. Results Patients in the control group took significantly longer duration in the length of surgical recovery from the first to the second (P = .007) and to the third evaluation time points (P = .013). Patients in the intervention group had significant less impaired mobility (P = .003), need for assistance for self‐care (P = .009), fatigue (P = .048), and time required for recuperation (P = .048). Conclusion Telephone follow‐up reduced the occurrence of delayed surgical recovery. SUMMARY STATEMENT What is already known about this topic? Increasing numbers of adverse perioperative events in patients who undergo surgical procedures have influenced and increased the rate of delayed surgical recovery. Although telemonitoring is recognized as a useful intervention to achieve better postsurgical outcomes, it is not consistently used. Guidance and telephone follow‐up calls for postsurgical patients are important to provide a better outcome. What this paper adds? Telephone follow‐up calls were associated with significantly decreased length of postsurgical recovery in days. Compared with patients who received follow‐up calls, patients who received conventional follow‐up only had poorer surgical recovery outcomes, such as impaired mobility, need for assistance for self‐care, fatigue, and increased time required for recuperation. The continuity of postoperative care at home should be systematized by telephone consultation. The implications of this paper: Telephone follow‐up calls represent an effective intervention expanding perioperative nursing care through the use of high accessibility and low‐cost information technology. New studies are required to evaluate the cost‐effectiveness of telephone follow‐up calls as an intervention