Patient expierence undergoing surgery - Essay Example

Surgery represents a major trauma that provokes a relatively stereotyped physiological response. A period of postoperative recovery follows, ranging from a few days to several weeks depending, primarily, on the severity of the pre-existing pathology and the surgical procedure performed (Munafo & Stevenson, 2001). For many patients, undergoing surgery can be a daunting thought. It has been shown that the majority of patients admitted to hospital for elective surgery experience anxiety preoperatively.

The cause for pre-operative anxiety can be attributed to many factors. Personal factors may include fear for the unknown outcome of the surgery, as some very risky surgical procedures can result in paralysis, coma and death, as the worst case scenario. Some patients also experience anxiety concerning the impact of their condition to their loved ones. Monetary issues as to the cost of the surgery itself, pre and post ancillary procedures, medications and hospital rates is also known to be a major cause of anxiety for most patients.

Anxiety and stress are unpleasant sensations and can also adversely influence the surgical procedure as well as affect the patients recovery (Badner, Nielson, Munk, Kwiatkowska & Gelb, 1990). Therefore, it is the objective of this paper to determine the physiological effects of surgical interventions as well as positioning on the patient, taking into consideration the effects of anxiety and stress on a patients perspective. For this case, the surgical procedure being used as an example is hysterectomy.

Hysterectomy is defined as the surgical removal of the uterus. The three common types of hysterectomy are: supracervical (partial) hysterectomy, which is the removal of the uterus without the cervix, total (complete) hysterectomy which is the removal of both uterus and cervix and radical hysterectomy which removes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, lymph