On Monday 22 September at 13:00, Anette Viftrup defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Development of a complex intervention to manage day-of-surgery cancellation – A respectful approach to reduce emotional harm". 

Cancellations of operations, caused by different hospital-related reasons, are an ongoing and often unavoidable challenge in healthcare. Surgery cancellation can have negative consequences for patients, relatives, healthcare staff, and the healthcare system as a whole. The aim of this project was to develop an intervention to handle same-day cancellations of orthopedic surgeries. The intervention was built on evidence, exploratory research, theory, and co-production, with the overall goal of reducing the potential emotional impact on patients.

The British Medical Research Council’s framework for developing complex healthcare interventions was used as the overall design.

During the development, the prevalence of patient-reported emotional and physical strain followed a cancellation was estimated. Furthermore, patients experience of the cancellation conversation, as well as the initial days of the extended waiting period. Based on these insights, a targeted intervention was created. Respect, defined as actions that uphold a person's dignity, played a central role in shaping the intervention across organisational levels. 

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in Auditorium C114-101, Entrance C, Aarhus University Hospital. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Anette Viftrup
Mail: anetvift@rm.dk 
Phone: +45 28781767

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