Impact of Nurse-Initiated Preoperative Health Education in Selected Hospitals in Southern Palawan

Effective nurse-initiated preoperative teaching improves surgical overall outcomes by reducing anxiety, clarifying understanding of the procedure, and enhancing recovery. Numerous foreign studies have already established the effects of preoperative teaching given by nurses yet evidence from Philippine Level 1 hospitals is limited. This cross-sectional descriptive comparative research studied 90 purposely selected elective postoperative adults (18 to 60 years) in three public facilities in Southern Palawan. Using a validated pilot-tested questionnaire (Cronbach α=.88), this study aimed to capture the respondents’ demographics, evaluate their perceptions on four preoperative teaching domains, determine differences in teaching perceptions, and evaluate perception towards teaching barriers. Descriptive statistics profiled the cohort, and Welch t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Fisher exact tests explored differences in perception. Respondents were mainly 26- 35 years old (38.9%), married (50%), college-educated (35.6%), and mostly undergone major and general surgeries. Focus means on perceptions towards preoperative clustered tightly between 4.47 and 4.49 on a five-point scale (grand mean = 4.48, “strongly agree”), confirming uniformly that nurse-led preoperative education was helpful, clear, and comprehensive. Perceptions did not have significant variations by sex, age, education, or surgical complexity, showing the current teaching protocol’s equity-levelling effect. Operation type was the only key influencer of teaching perception (F =2.84, p=.029) where orthopedic patients rated teaching lower (mean=4.11). Reversed barrier scores exposed two major threats, an unfavorable nurse-patient ratio (4.76) and limited teaching resources (4.60). The study concludes that while current education is highly effective, overcoming communication barriers, the staffing and material deficits jeopardize its sustainability. The findings suggest implementing the developed three-phase augmentation plan featuring protected teaching windows, resource-efficient high-reach media, and targeted staffing advocacy to fortify the current program’s strengths and address its vulnerabilities.