Patient Anxiety Essay

Patient anxiety is a problem that people in the medical imaging field deal with every day. Patient anxiety is very common and can be increased by being in a hospital setting (Acuff, Bradley, Barlow & Osborne, 2014).”Many medical examinations can be affected by an overly anxious patient, with unwanted side effects such as motion, resulting in reduced image quality (Acuff et al., 2014). In this study there is an attempt to reduce patient anxiety in PET/CT by improving communication with the patient by using a “hand held call device” (Acuff et al., 2014, pg 212).The authors “hypothesized that the use of a tangible device enabling improved patient- to – technologist communication will have a positive impact on reducing patient anxiety for PET/CT imaging (Acuff et al.,2014, pg 212).

“The confined space,” and because PET/CT can be used “to diagnosis and stage many forms of cancer” can increase anxiety for the patient (Acuff et al.,2014, pg 211). In PET/CT it is specifically important to reduce patient anxiety because “the primary tracer used for PET/CT imaging is F18-FDG” (Acuff et al., 2014, pg 211). Anxiety can greatly affect the rate of “false positive or false negative uptake” when

using this tracer (Acuff et al.,2014, pg 211).
This study was broken down into three different patient populations in “F18 FDG PET/CT” studies (Acuff ed al., 2014, pg 212).

In the first patient population the authors broke the population down into two groups each having a different communication device. The patients were then given a survey on anxiety. The authors had the second population consist three groups with multiple control groups. The first group was told about and received a device before the exam. The second group received a device but, was not told about receiving a device and the third group did not received a device. The authors broke the third patient population into two groups. The first group received a device but, they were not told about its use until just before the exam. The second group was not given a

device.
The first population responded to the survey with “sixty percent “responding “that having the device reduced their anxiety” (Acuff et al., 2014, pg 214). In the second population studied the first group “experienced a greater level of anxiety than groups 2 and 3”(Acuff et al., 2014, pg 215). The authors decided this showed “patients who were told they would receive a device experienced greater anxiety than the other groups” (Acuff et al., 2014, pg 215). The authors attributed this to the anxiety of the device itself (Acuff et al., 2014). Therefore they decided to not tell the group in population three about the device until directly before the procedure.
The authors’ hypothesis was proven correct by showing the anxiety of the patients was reduced with a call device as long as they were only told about it just before the exam (Acuff et al., 2014). The work showed “the device does not matter so much as making the patients aware they can easily contact imaging staff” (Acuff et al., 2014 pg 216). The authors determined there would be improved imaging with less anxiety but, more work needed to be done to quantify thoses speculations (Acuff et al., 2014).
This article was well written and shows the importance of communication and reducing anxiety of the patient. I agree with the findings of the article and believe there would better image quality from patients with reduced anxiety. Reducing the patients anxiety would not only improve the image quality but increase the patients overall experience in the hospital setting. Making the patient feel comfortable and getting quality images is imaging technologist main purpose.