Date of this Version

11-26-2025

Document Type

DNP Project

Rights

default

Abstract

Background: Pain and anxiety are major challenges that adult surgical patients experience during the perioperative period of surgery. Currently, treatment options for pain and anxiety heavily rely on pharmacological interventions like opioids and benzodiazepines. These medications are effective at treating these issues, but they are also associated with multiple adverse effects, including dependency and delayed recovery. The ongoing opioid crisis in the United States shows that there is a need for safe, non-pharmacological treatment options. Music therapy is a cost-effective, non-invasive, and safe intervention that has showed potential to complement the traditional treatments. Research indicates that music therapy can decrease pain perception, anxiety levels, and improve physiological measurements, but music therapy remains underutilized.

Methods: This project uses an educational module for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to help them understand the benefits of using music therapy in the perioperative setting. A pre-/post-intervention assessed the CRNAs knowledge about music therapy and its benefits. Participants completed a pre-test, then reviewed the evidence-based educational module, and completed a post-test to measure knowledge on music therapy and attitude in adopting change. Descriptive and inferential statistics analyzed pre-/post-test results to determine the educational modules impact. Key metrics include self-reported changes in understanding, perceptions of music therapy, and its feasibility.

Results: Ten CRNAs with different backgrounds and years of experience completed the pre-test, educational module, and the post-test. The post-test results showed a measurable increase in the CRNAs’ knowledge about music therapy’s effects on pain, anxiety, and hemodynamic stability. The number of participants who reported being “most likely” to use music therapy in their practice increased from 40% to 70% post-intervention.

Conclusion: The educational module effectively increased CRNAs’ knowledge and the likelihood of using music therapy during the perioperative period. Music therapy presents a low-cost, non-invasive, and feasible treatment option to enhance multimodal analgesia treatment, improve patient outcomes, and reduce reliance on pharmacologic interventions to treat pain and anxiety. Incorporating music therapy into anesthesia care could contribute to safer, more holistic perioperative management of adult surgical patients.

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