# Medical staff’s perspectives on patients’ anxieties and interventions in a rehabilitation ward: A qualitative study

## TL;DR

This study explores how medical staff perceive and address patient anxieties during different stages of rehabilitation, aiming to improve psychological and clinical outcomes.

## Contribution

The study identifies specific anxiety clusters and corresponding interventions across hospitalization phases, based on medical staff perspectives.

## Key findings

- Anxieties were grouped into six clusters, including rehabilitation plans, hospital life, and family concerns in early to middle phases.
- Interventions were classified into eight clusters, with phase-specific strategies like providing information and social resources.
- Anxieties about prognosis and social life were consistent across all phases, while discharge-related concerns emerged in the late phase.

## Abstract

Anxiety and depression in rehabilitation patients can adversely impact clinical outcomes. They may have anxieties about the differences in their physical conditions and living environments compared to before hospitalization. Although medical staff address patients’ anxieties, the content of anxieties and the type of intervention have not been clarified. This study aimed to highlight the contents of anxieties and interventions for patients undergoing rehabilitation, based on medical staff’s perspectives.

Seventeen medical staff were interviewed about the anxieties they perceived patients experience at the convalescent rehabilitation ward (early, middle, and late phases of hospitalization) and the corresponding interventions. Text mining and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to classify the contents of anxieties and interventions. This study was conducted based on the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research.

Patients’ anxieties were classified into six clusters. Among the clusters, prospects for rehabilitation plans, hospital life (e.g., unfamiliar hospital environment), and family situation (e.g., concerns about family life at home) were identified in the early to middle phases, and life at home after discharge was identified in the late phase. The prognosis of physical function and prospects of social life (e.g., return to work) were identified throughout all phases. The types of interventions for these anxieties were classified into eight clusters. The medical staff provided information about patients’ prospects and helped them contact family members in the early phase. In the middle phase, feedback on patients’ improvement in physical function was incorporated. In the late phase, information on social resources was provided to address anxieties about life after discharge.

This study showed that patients’ anxiety and interventions varied according to hospitalization phases. The findings underscore appropriate ways and the timing of interventions to keep patients in a better psychological state, potentially leading to better rehabilitation outcomes.