FEAR OF PATIENTS RELATED TO CORONARY ARTERIOGRAPHY

The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate the ability of i nstruments to produce information about the presence and intensity of fear before, during and after coronary arteriography. Information abou t patient fear was measured from cognitive, physiological and behaviou ral dimensions. The sample of the study was 243 patients who were due to have a scheduled coronary arteriography in a university hospital in Finland, Fear was measured by the Visual Analogy Scale (VAS), Hospita l Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Physiological measurements (blood pressure and heart rate) we re obtained. The VAS was given to 46 nurses and seven nurse assistants to measure nurses' perception of patient fear. Over 80% of the patien ts reported fears. Nurses perceived that the patients had more fears t han they reported. Changes in physiological measurements were small bu t significant. One-third of the patients felt increased fear after the coronary arteriography. VAS, STAI and HAD produced reliable informati on about the patient fear. The correlations between the instruments su ggest that each is a valid and appropriate measure of fear. Nurses nee d to develop their communication and observation skills in order to de velop their recognition of the patients' fear.