A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Reiki Therapy on Pre- Operative Anxiety Among Clients Undergoing General Anesthesia in Selected Hospitals at South Gujarat

Most patients awaiting elective surgery experience anxiety and it is a challenging concept in the preoperative period. Reiki therapy can help to alleviate anxiety by re‐training the brain to relax, cooling down the “fight‐or‐flight response” and nurturing “relaxation response”. The objective of the study was to identify the effectiveness of the Reiki therapy on the Preoperative anxiety among clients undergoing general anesthesia. A Quasi-experimental non randomized control group research design was adopted for this study. 50 clients were selected by Purposive sampling method. 25 subjects each were allocated in control and experimental group. State trait anxiety inventory scale was used to assess the anxiety among subjects. Reiki therapy was given by investigator for 30 min in one session. Result showed that in control group there were no significantly changes in preoperative anxiety mean score. Whereas among the subjects in Experimental group pre operative anxiety score was 50.76 and after Reiki therapy anxiety score was 43.80 (mean difference 6.96). There were significantly decrease in preoperative anxiety in the experimental group (P < 0.05). Study concluded that Reiki therapy can be an effective method of decreasing Preoperative anxiety among subjects undergoing general anesthesia. Nurses can incorporate this intervention as a non-pharmacological intervention into the daily care of clients undergoing general anesthesia.