The Effect of Using Peplau's Therapeutic Relationship Model on Anxiety of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Candidates

Background Anxiety is a one of the psychological aftereffect of cardiac surgery, which affects the outcome of treatment. One of the most effective ways to reduce anxiety is to train and establish a targeted relationship based on a functional model. Objectives The present study aimed to determine the effect of Peplau's therapeutic relationship model on anxiety of patients who were candidate for coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Patients and Methods In this clinical trial, 74 patients were enrolled according to eligibility criteria and were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups of 37 people. We evaluated anxiety of the patients using the Beck anxiety inventory before, immediately after, and two and four months after intervention. Based on Peplau's therapeutic relationship model, therapeutic communication sessions were conducted in four phases during seven sessions. Data analysis was performed with the statistical test of covariance analysis using SPSS version 16. Results The results of our study showed that after therapeutic communication, the mean score of anxiety decreased from 30.35 to 25.38 in the intervention group (P < 0.001), while the scores decreased from 33.22 to 31.46 in the control group. Furthermore, the mean score of anxiety in the intervention group decreased at two and four months after the intervention. Conclusions The findings showed a positive effect of therapeutic relationship based on Peplau's model on reducing anxiety of patients undergoing CABG. Therefore, health care teams, including nurses, should take advantage of appropriate communication with patients in their care procedures. In that regard, Peplau's communication model is recommended as a simple, low-cost, and efficient method