Based on the assumption that surgical patients, together with their families, take responsibility for otheir own care after being discharged from the hospital and met they are not duly prepared for this task, we indertook the present study to investigate the problems of surgical patients related to discharge and to determine the type of care offered to these individuals within the context of the health system.
The study indued patients submitted to elective, medium surgery at the University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, USP, during the first semester of 1989. Fifty patients (42 women and 8 men) of the various surgical specialties were interviewed during home visits. The instrument for data collection consisted of three parts: the first involved social and enviromental aspects such as housing job, family and others, the second involved the relationship of the individual with the health system, his/her perceptions and difficulties, and the third involved the biological aspects related to the surgical process. The data were analyzed in a descriptive manner on the basis of the theoretical referencial of Lalonde, which sees health as the result of a dynamic process of individual integration with the environment.
Surgical Patients; Discharge from Hospital; Assessment of Postoperative Outpatient