Abstract

HERNANDEZ QUINTANA, Araceli; REZA OROZCO, Gabriela; CASTILLO RIOS, Enriqueta  and  OLIVIA LARA, Carmen. Abdominal Hysterectomy: the life experience of twenty women. Index Enferm [online]. 2006, vol.15, n.52-53, pp.11-15. ISSN 1699-5988.

The abdominal hysterectomy constitutes a frequently performed surgery, and for which there’s no pre-surgery education for the patient, considering the significance that the uterus has to women. Objectives: Identify the attitudes, knowledge and needs of women. To give the required individualized information and, later, to evaluate the results educative intervention post-surgery. Methods: With previous authorization from the patients, a profound interview was applied to 20 of them, of 2 health institutions, one of social security, the other of social assistance, they were programmed for the abdominal hysterectomy. The information was collected manually; it was analyzed by means of the Based Theory. Results: Before the educative information, the most important categories were gender and lack of information, which influence the patient’s vision of the surgery and attitude towards it. During the intervention doubts and myths were clarified, fears were detected, specifying the attitude of the informants and investigators. The results showed changes in the attitude and in the perception of the received attention. Conclusions: We conclude that when the patient knows and understands the surgery process, the more she participates and empowerment about the situation, the anxiety diminishes and there’s a considerable recovery.