A qualitative assessment of experiences and perception during pre-admission for rotator cuff repair surgery

BACKGROUND: Rotator Cuff Related Shoulder Pain (RCRSP) is the most common type of shoulder pain and the most disabling common symptom in people with Rotator Cuff Tear (RCT). The patient’s point of view concerning health status has become important in decision-making procedures and has therefore been considered a possible criterion standard for assessing treatment efficacy. The study aims to explore patients’ experiences and perceptions during pre-admission for Rotator Cuff Repair surgery. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using a phenomenological approach based on Husserl’s philosophical perspective. A consecutive sample of twenty RCT patients awaiting repair surgery agreed to participate and was interviewed until the information was saturated. None of the patients enrolled was lost during the data collection phases. Data were collected through open-ended interviews between December 2021 and January 2022. The credibility, reliability, confirmability, and transferability criteria of Lincoln and Guba have been adopted to guarantee the trustworthiness of the results. The data analysis was conducted according to inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Four main themes and sub-themes related to each have been identified from the phenomenological analysis. The major themes were: (1) Pain changes lifestyle habits, (2) Pain control requires specific strategies, (3) Suffering turns time into waiting, (4) Waiting for Surgery between trust and fear. CONCLUSION: Investigating patients’ experiences and the emotional impact of Rotator Cuff Tear facilitates the development of specific educational and therapeutic strategies to improve care and post-intervention outcomes.