OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether vicarious experience, in which former patients exemplify the active lives they are leading, reduces anxiety and increases self-efficacy expectation and self-reported activity in patients after cardiac surgery. DESIGN: A randomized, controlled trial was used to evaluate an intervention that linked volunteers who had recovered from cardiac surgery in dyadic support with patients about to undergo similar surgery. The linking was achieved by means of visits during the hospitalization and recovery period. SUBJECTS: Fifty-six first-time male patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, with a mean age of 56.5 years, were randomly assigned to an experimental (n = 27) or control group (n = 29). OUTCOME MEASURES: Anxiety was measured at 48 hours and 24 hours before surgery, and again at 5 days and 4 weeks after surgery. Self-efficacy expectation and self-reported activity were both evaluated at 5 days and 4 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: Only the experimental group showed a significant decrease in anxiety during hospitalization. At all measurement times after the first intervention, the experimental group reported significantly lower levels of anxiety compared with the control group. The experimental group reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy expectation and self-reported activity for general activities, walking, and climbing stairs evaluated at 5 days, and for general activities at 4 weeks after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Vicarious experience provided through dyadic support is effective in helping patients undergoing cardiac surgery cope with surgical anxiety and in improving self-efficacy expectations and self-reported activity after surgery. Dyadic support is a valuable tool for recovery from cardiac surgery that needs to be maintained and explored through nursing practice and research.

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