Outcomes of Nurse-Led Psychological Reassurance Towards Reducing Post- Operative Pains among Patients in Selected Hospitals in Ibadan Oyo State

Postoperative pain affects a significant proportion of surgical patients globally and remains amajor challenge in post-surgical care, with a substantial number of patients developingpersistent pain. Although psychological preparation for surgery has been shown to improvesurgical outcomes, limited evidence exists on the effectiveness of nurse-led psychologicalreassurance in reducing postoperative pain and anxiety among surgical patients in Nigerianhospital settings.This study investigated the effect of nurse-led psychological reassurance on postoperative painand surgery preparedness among surgical patients in selected hospitals in Ibadan, Oyo State. Aquasi-experimental research design involving experimental and control groups was adopted.Four hospitals were selected, comprising two experimental and two control sites. A total of 102surgical patients were randomly selected, including 67 in the experimental group and 35 in thecontrol group. Data were collected using a self-developed, structured questionnaire which wasvalidated by experts in nursing and behavioural sciences. The instrument demonstratedacceptable internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.78. Datawere analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, with the t-test conducted atp ≤ 0.05.The results showed that following the intervention, the proportion of patients who were wellprepared for surgery increased significantly in the experimental group (79.1%), while only4.5% remained poorly prepared. Psychological reassurance also improved significantly, withonly 6.4% of respondents reporting high levels of worry. There was a statistically significantimprovement in surgery preparedness (t = 2.282, p = 0.026) and psychological reassurance (t= 2.005, p = 0.049) following the intervention. It was concluded in this study that nurse-ledpsychological reassurance significantly improved surgical patients’ psychologicalpreparedness and reduced postoperative pain-related anxiety. The study therefore recommendsthe integration of structured psychological reassurance into routine nursing care for surgicalpatients as a complementary approach to postoperative pain management, with reducedreliance on opioid analgesics.