Effects of psychocardiological nursing on the anxiety of patients undergoing atrial fibrillation radiofrequency ablation

Background Atrial fibrillation(AF) is one of the common types of heart disease, and the patients are prone to a variety of adverse emotions which can affect the surgery and prognosis. The care of AF is mainly based on the concept of psychocardiological comprehensive nursing care. However, psychocardiological care in patients with AF has not been addressed adequately. Methods A randomized controlled clinical trial along with questionnaire surveys were applied in this study. The anxiety self-assessment scale(SAS) was employed to screen and enroll AF patients in the cardiology department of Guangdong provincial people.s hospital from January 2017 to March 2019. Eighty patients with a SAS score of 50 or above and plans of future radiofrequency ablation were selected and randomly divided into control and study groups. The psychocardiological nursing care was prescribed to the subjects in the study group, while the routine nursing care was done for the subjects in the control group.The anxiety levels of all patients were measured and compared upon admission and at 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge, respectively. Results The anxiety levels of the patients undergoing psychocardiological nursing care in the study group were effectively reduced(P<0.05). Conclusion The psychocardiological nursing care exerted positive effects on lowering the anxiety levels of AF patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation.[S Chin J Cardiol 2019;20(4):258-263]