Effectiveness of video resources in nursing orientation before cardiac heart surgery.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of video resources in increasing patient knowledge during preoperative orientation for cardiac surgery compared to standard orientation. Method: Randomized clinical trial. Patients in the intervention group (IG) received bedside orientation with the aid of a short video and a slide presentation on the day prior to surgery. Patients in the control group (CG) received standard orientation. Allocation and analysis of knowledge were blinded. Analysis was performed according to the intention to treat principle. Results: We included 90 patients, 45 in each group; 27.8% had incomplete primary education. There were no differences between groups in the baseline. After orientation, IG scored 7.20 (±1.56) and scored CG 2.71 (±1.96, p<0,001). The topic "surgical room" had the lowest proportion of correct answers in CG (6.7%), compared to IG (68.9%). The question about "postoperative unit" was the one with the highest proportion of correct answers in IG (93.3%), while in CG the proportion was 22.2%. "Ventilatory support" had a low proportion of correct answers in IG (60%), but still much higher than the correct answers in CG (17.8%). Conclusion: Orientation performed with the aid of video resources is more effective for knowledge retention in preoperative patients, compared to verbal orientation alone.