title: Self-reported at-home postoperative recovery.
abstract: Although 75% of elective surgery is performed on an outpatient basis, no measures of patients' at-home postoperative recovery were found in the literature. The postdischarge surgical recovery (PSR) scale was designed to serve as a dependent variable capable of measuring variations in perceived recovery in patients dismissed within 24 hours of their surgical procedure. Five concepts: health status; activity; fatigue; work ability; and expectations, derived from an ethnographic analysis, are represented in the 15-item 10-point semantic differential scale. The PSR scale exhibited strong internal consistency in two samples (alpha=.88-.91). The concurrent validity coefficient between the PSR scale and the previously tested Wolfer-Davis Recovery Inventory (1970) was .76 (n = 163; p< or =.001). Construct validity was supported by the relationship (r=.72, p< or =.001) between patients' reported percentage of recovery (0-100%) and PSR scores. Construct val idity was also supported by correlations between the PSR scale and in-home assessment by a master clinical nurse specialist (r=.77, p=.003, n=12) and by trained in-home observers (r=.71, p< or =.001, n=59). Clinicians or researchers interested in the extent of perceived at-home Postoperative recovery may now search for symptom patterns and changes over time in a variety of ambulatory surgery patients using the PSR scale.
authors.affiliation: Family Care Research, University of Kansas School of Nursing, Kansas City 66160-7503, USA.
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Kleinbeck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / Q000451:nursing* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D011182:Postoperative Care; D020127:Recovery of Function; D014481:United States