P17: Assessing the Effect of Information Provision on Anxiety Levels in Patients Transferring from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit to the General Ward

Transfer of patients from the cardiac intensive care unit to the general ward, is one of the main reasons for anxiety. Given that the transfer anxiety may be due to receive at least, inconsistent or do not receive enough information before the patients leaving the intensive care unit, Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of information provision on anxiety levels in patients transferred from cardiac intensive care unit to the general ward. This study was a randomized clinical trial that conducted on patients transferred from intensive cardiac care unit to the general ward. In this study, 50 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected by convenience sampling method initially. Then were divided randomly into control and intervention group. In order to collect data about the anxiety the DASS anxiety questionnaire was used. In first step the DASS questionnaire was completed by patients to determine levels of anxiety before medical team decided to transfer from the cardiac intensive care unit to a general ward. Then while the patients in the control group received only routine verbal information, the patient in the intervention group received pamphlet that containing text and images about transfer process, continuity of care and information about general ward environment. After the patient informed of transfer orders the DASS questionnaire completed again by patients. Chi-square, independent t-test, ANOVA with repeated measure tests was used to analyze the data. The results of this study showed that the demographic factors have no significant difference between the two groups before the intervention (P>0.05). In this study the anxiety  levels were significantly reduced in the intervention group in comparison with the control group (P-value ≤o.o5). The results suggest the use of educational pamphlet about transfer, continuity of care and information about general care environment can reduce anxiety in patients which are transferred from cardiac intensive care unit to the general ward.