Objective: A literature review was conducted to explore what is already known of surgical patients' informational needs, their opinions about the provision of information and the effect of individualised information.
Methods: Computerised searches from 1994 to March 2004 were conducted on MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials using the keywords information, surgical patient adult and nursing.
Results: Findings about the provision of information and important areas for surgical patients vary from study to study. Surgical patients have specific informational needs during the peri-operative period. However, some studies showed that the patients were not given the information that they need. This is a concern because patients have to take care of themselves after discharge. Individually tailored learning and teaching strategies are needed for patients to ensure the quality and usefulness of information for patients post-discharge.
Conclusions: The results of this review confirm that information, which is tailored to individual patient needs, has an important role for surgical patients. At present there is a poor understanding of the processes that describe the detailed experiences of surgical patients in clinical care and the possibilities of empowerment through learning.
Practice implications: As surgical patients differ individually in their learning needs and benefit from different content and quantity of information, more emphasis should be put into evaluating and assessing these individual needs.