The effect of the anxiety levels of patients before the heart cap operation on the stay duration in the intensive care after surgery

This study used a descriptive research design and aimed to determine the effect of patients' anxiety levels before heart valve surgery on the duration of postoperative stay in the intensive care unit. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Anxiety Specific to Surgery Questionnaire (ASSQ) through face-to-face interviews. Study results were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics V21.0 software. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, median, frequency, percent, minimum, maximum) were used to analyze data. For quantitative variables the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Students' t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, One-way Anova Test, Bonferroni test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The minimum value of p<0.05 was accepted as the significance level. The study found that anxiety levels of female patients and those with lower socioeconomic levels were higher compared to male patients and those with higher socioeconomic level. In addition, there was no statistically significant relationship between the patients' postoperative length of stay in the intensive care unit and their ASSQ scores. It is recommended to conduct quantitative and qualitative studies, including large samples, and to discuss the effects of anxiety on patients' length of stay in intensive care units. Key words: Anxiety, heart valve surgery, length of stay in the intensive care, nursing, postoperative