the effect of personnel primary communication on the pre-operative anxiety of patients admitted to operating room

background & aim: operation as a stressor can induce physical and psychological negative reactions. considering the anxiety prevalence as the most important sign and symptoms before surgery, on one hand, and the necessity of patients’ mental preparation as the most essential care before surgery, on the other hand, the importance of primary communication of medical centers’ staff would be determined. hence, this study was conducted to evaluate primary communication with personnel on the pre-operative anxiety of patients in operating rooms of al-zahra hospital in isfahan city in 2014. methods & materials: this study is a two-group, two stages clinical trial. participants were selected by convenience sampling from male and female patients who were candidated for general surgery and then allocated to the control (n = 43) and intervention (n = 43) group based on odd or even number of patients record. in the intervention group, researcher introduced herself/himself and then patients were allowed to speak out about their surgery-related stresses and worries until 10 minutes. but in the control group, researcher conducted no intervention and just stayed in the room for 10 minutes. data were gathered through the demographic characteristics checklist and the amsterdam pre-operative anxiety questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with spss version 18. results: results showed no significant difference between the score of score in the control group and the intervention group before the intervention (p > 0.050). however, results of paired t-test showed that in the intervention group, the mean score of anxiety in patients after the intervention was significantly lower than before the intervention (p < 0.050). conclusion: personnel primary communication can reduce pre-operative anxiety of patients admitted to operating room.