Determining the effect of symptoms associated with self-care agency in patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery

This study was planned to determine the effects of symptoms observed after coronary artery bypass graft surgery on self-care skills. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 223 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery between March and August 2021, hospitalized at Cardiovascular Surgery Services of a Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, and met the inclusion criteria for the study. In the study, data were collected using the 'Patient Information Form', 'Heart Surgery Symptom Inventory' and 'Self-Care-Agency Scale'. The data were analyzed with SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social sciences) 25 package program. In the analysis of data; frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Kolmogorov-Smirnova, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and Kruskal Wallis z tests, and Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis were used as descriptive and correlational statistical methods. The patients' symptom severity total score average was 33.36±17.88, and their self-care agency total score average was 89.63±21.43. Symptom severity total score averages had a highly significant negative relationship with self-care agency total score averages (r=-0.229; p<0.001); gender (Z=-2.132, p=0.033), regular exercise status (Z=-2.377, p=0.017) and length of hospital stay (KW=11.033, p=0.004) were found to have higher average symptom severity scores; gender (Z=-2.565, p=0.010), educational status (KW=6.469, p=0.039), employment status (Z=-2.116, p= 0.034), regular exercise status (Z=-3.748, p=0.001) had a significant effect on the self-care agency score averages. It should be taken into consideration that patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery may experience various symptoms, thus nursing interventions that will increase self-care efficiency should be integrated into nursing care. Self-care behaviours after coronary artery bypass graft surgery should be evaluated by using various assessment tools. Keywords: CABG, Symptom, self-care agency, nurse