To deeply understand the reason and inner experience of day surgery patients canceling surgery through qualitative research, so as to strengthen the management of day surgery patients.

This research adopted phenomenological research method. From June to December 2019, purpose sampling was used to select 12 patients who had canceled the day surgery at Ningbo First Hospital in Zhejiang Province for a semi-structured interview. The Colaizzi 7-step analysis method was used for data analysis.

Through repeated refining, analysis and extraction of interview data, the reasons and inner experience of day surgery patients who canceled surgery were finally summarized into 5 themes. Those themes included fear of day surgery, distrust of day doctors, affected by basic diseases and physiological factors, lack of confidence in community medical care, insufficient preparation before surgery.

The reasons for day surgery patients to cancel surgery include fear of surgery, distrust of doctors, basic diseases and physiological factors, lack of confidence in community medical care, and insufficient preparation before surgery. It is recommended that day surgery medical and nursing staff strengthen day ward management, improve their professional level and ability to communicate with patients, and at the same time promote the construction of hospital-community integration to ensure the medical safety of patients after discharge from the hospital, and further reduce the cancellation rate of day surgery.

Surgery; Ambulatory surgical procedures; Reason for cancellation; Phenomenological research