Introduction: An increasing share of surgical activity is organised as day surgery, thus giving more responsibility for care to patients and their next of kin.
Purpose: To obtain increased understanding of orthopaedic day surgery patients' experiences with self-management.
Methods: A descriptive interview study. Eleven men and five women aged 18-78 years, who had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery in rural Norway participated in qualitative individual interviews during autumn 2018. Systematic text condensation was used as analysis strategy.
Results: The main theme a planned but vulnerable pathway towards self-management and five subthemes were highlighted. The interviewees were satisfied with most aspects of the day surgery. However, challenges in adapting oral and written information to self-management postdischarge, a need for further self-management support at home, and strenuous travel increased the strain.
Conclusion: The written and oral information and support that was planned and provided by the hospital did not meet the patients' needs for self-management support postdischarge. The day surgery care pathway seemed to lack effective educational interventions for strengthening the patients' self-efficacy and control and to have potential for improvements.
Keywords: ambulatory surgery; day surgery; experience; orthopaedic; patient perspective; qualitative; self-management.
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