A Novel Finding: The Effect of Nurse Practitioners on the Relation to Quality of Life, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms in Vascular Surgery

BackgroundAn increasing number of vascular surgery units expand their team with nurse practitioners (NPs) to optimize patient care. There are no previously performed studies which assessed the influence of NPs on patients' quality of life (QoL), anxiety, and depressive symptom levels. The transition in care from surgeon to NP in the vascular surgery unit of our hospital facilitated the comparison of both groups.MethodsA prospective study was undertaken to analyze the effect of NPs on QoL, anxiety, and depressive symptom scores. Two groups were analyzed: a group of patients treated by a vascular surgeon alone (surgeon group) and a group of patients treated by a NP supervised by a vascular surgeon (NP group). Patients completed the short version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) questionnaires both before and after intervention.ResultsTwo hundred fourteen patients were included in our study. Within groups, there was a significant increase in physical QoL, with 5.2 points in the surgeon group and 4.4 points in the NP group. There was a significant decrease in anxiety scores (−3.8 points in the surgeon group and −5.4 points in the NP group). No differences were found for depressive symptoms. Between groups, no differences were found.ConclusionsThe same improvements were found for QoL and anxiety scores in both groups. Vascular NPs are therefore competent to explain procedures and guide patients through vascular interventions.