During the angiography, the researcher asked the patient to squeeze the stress ball once for every count of three. The angiography procedure lasted approximately 25-30 minutes.

No intervention other than the clinic protocol was applied to this group.

Patients in the experimental group were told how to use the stress ball before the procedure. The patient was then taken to the angiography unit. The stress ball was placed on the palms of the patients according to the procedure position. During the angiography, the researcher asked the patient to squeeze the stress ball once for every count of three. The angiography procedure lasted approximately 25-30 minutes. After the procedure, the NRS and STAI were filled out as a post-test 10 minutes after the patient was taken to the ward. The answers given by the patients were recorded by the researcher by marking them on the forms.

This scale, which assesses the degree of pain, aims to make the patient express their pain in numbers. It starts with no pain (0) and goes up to unbearable pain (10 or 100). The high level of pain reporting is known as a disadvantage. Miró et al. found that the validity of the NRS for pain assessment was at an acceptable level (Miró et al., 2009). Hjermstad et al. compared the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), and Verbal Descriptor Scale (VDS) for the assessment of pain intensity in adults and found that the NRS was more understandable and easier to use than the VAS and VDS

The scale was developed by Spielberger et al. Its reliability and validity in our country were performed by Öner and Le Compte. The scale consists of two subunits that measure anxiety separately, but in this study, the state-trait anxiety that patients feel indirectly from the stressful situation they are in will be used. A scale of 4-point Likert-type consisting of 20-item short statements measures the state-trait anxiety level of the individual.