Discharge Education After Open Heart Surgery

November 11, 2026 updated by: Filiz Salman Saraç, Suleyman Demirel University

Teach-Back Method and Podcast for Discharge Education After Open Heart Surgery: Randomized Controlled Trial

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of discharge education delivered by the teach-back method and by podcast on discharge readiness, self-efficacy, and postoperative recovery in patients undergoing open heart surgery. Ninety patients will be randomly assigned to a teach-back group, a podcast group, or a control group receiving routine care. Discharge readiness and self-efficacy will be measured on the day of discharge, and self-efficacy and postoperative recovery will be measured one month after discharge.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This three-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial (1:1:1) will enroll 90 adults undergoing first-time elective open heart surgery at University hospital in Turkey. The education content, covering wound care, pain, medications, daily activities, nutrition, psychological status, warning signs, and mechanical valve care, was reviewed by 5 experts. On the day before discharge, the teach-back group will receive education with the teach-back method, and the podcast group will listen to an audio recording of the same content. The control group will receive routine care. All patients will receive the clinic's standard brochure after discharge-day measurements. Randomization uses permuted blocks of varying sizes with sealed opaque envelopes, and outcomes will be assessed by a researcher on the day of discharge (face to face) and one month after discharge (by telephone).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

90

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
      • Isparta, Turkey (Türkiye), 32200
        • Suleyman Demirel University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Aged 18 years or older
  • Undergoing first-time elective open heart surgery
  • Speaks and understands Turkish
  • Literate and able to communicate verbally
  • Hemodynamically stable in the postoperative period
  • Discharge planned

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any condition that may affect communication ability (e.g., dementia, Alzheimer's disease, cognitive impairment, schizophrenia)
  • Diagnosed neurological and/or psychiatric disorder
  • Severe visual or hearing impairment
  • Repeat surgery during the same hospitalization
  • Postoperative complication affecting communication
  • Sharing a room with another patient who has undergone open heart surgery

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Teach-Back Group

Discharge education delivered using the prepared education content on the day before discharge. Patients explain the information in their own words; missing or incorrect information is repeated until the patient demonstrates understanding. The clinic's standard discharge brochure is given at discharge.
Behavioral: Teach-back discharge education

Discharge education is given individually by the researcher on the day before discharge using the prepared education content (wound care, pain management, medication use, activities of daily living, compression stockings and sternal support vest, nutrition, psychological status, warning signs, and mechanical valve care). After the session, the patient explains the information in their own words; missing or incorrect information is re-taught until the patient demonstrates understanding.

Other Names:
  • Teach-back method
Experimental: Podcast Group

The same education content recorded as audio and played to patients on the day before discharge. The clinic's standard discharge brochure is given at discharge.
Behavioral: Podcast discharge education

The same education content is recorded as audio and played to the patient on the day before discharge. The audio material was evaluated by 5 experts using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials (PEMAT-A/V).

Other Names:
  • Audio-recorded discharge education
No Intervention: Control Group

Routine care and routine discharge education of the clinic, including the clinic's standard discharge brochure given at discharge. No additional intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-efficacy at discharge
Time Frame: From surgery to hospital discharge, an average of 7 days

Barnason Efficacy Expectation Scale-Cardiac Surgery Version (15 items, 4-point Likert; total score 15-60). Higher scores indicate higher self-efficacy expectation.
From surgery to hospital discharge, an average of 7 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Discharge readiness
Time Frame: From surgery to hospital discharge, an average of 7 days

Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale-Short Form (8 items, 0-10; mean score). Higher scores indicate greater readiness for discharge.
From surgery to hospital discharge, an average of 7 days
Self-efficacy at one month
Time Frame: From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge

Barnason Efficacy Expectation Scale-Cardiac Surgery Version, administered by telephone. Higher scores indicate higher self-efficacy expectation.
From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge
Postoperative recovery
Time Frame: From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge

Postoperative Recovery Index, Turkish version (25 items, 5 subscales; mean score). Higher scores indicate greater difficulty in recovery.
From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge
Hospital readmissions and emergency visits
Time Frame: From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge

Number of hospital readmissions and emergency department visits after discharge, self-reported by telephone.
From hospital discharge to 1 month after discharge

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Suleyman Demirel University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

November 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 30, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 3, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 11, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

November 12, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 12, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 11, 2026

Last Verified

November 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TeachPod110/56

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data will not be shared publicly; data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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