To determine the fear of COVİD-19 in patients who will have an operation

To Determine the Fear of COVID-19 in Patients Who Will Have an Operation The aim of this research is to determine the fear of COVID-19 in patients who will undergo an operation in surgical clinics. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 281 patients who will be operated at Çukurova State Hospital in surgical clinics between 1 November 2021 and 31 May 2022. Patients who will be operated, ≥18 years of age, who will undergo elective surgery and stay in the hospital for at least 24 hours after surgery also who do not have cognitive impairment and who agree to participate in the study were included in this study. The data of the study were collected with the COVID-19 Fear Scale and the patient form which is created by the researchers scanning the literature. The statistical analysis of the data was used by SPSS 24.0 program. The mean age of the patients included in the study was 54.13±16.04 years, %55,5 of the patients were women. A significant relation was identified between the level of COVID-19 fear and working situation the presence of chronic disease and the major of the surgery performed (p<0.05). The COVID-19 Fear Scale scores of the patients were 23.43±4.88, "I get nervous while watching the news about coronavirus infection on social media" (4.14±0.77), "I'm afraid of dying because of coronavirus infection ''(4.00±0.89) statements got the highest score. A statistically significant relation was found between the patients who were afraid of the risk of COVID-19 transmission before surgery, the COVID-19 fear levels, previous vaccination status, 1st and 2nd dose of Sinovac vaccine (p<0.05). According to these results obtained from the study, the majority of the patients had high COVID-19 fear levels in the preoperative period. Precautions should be taken in the preoperative period aimed at the reasons that leading the fear of COVID-19, coping methods should be evaluated and supported by considering to the features of the patients. Keywords: COVID-19, Fear, Preoperative Period, Patient,Nursing