Empowering education increases patients’ and significant others’ knowledge and helps them in making health related decisions. PURPOSE: To investigate the amount of knowledge that significant others of orthopaedic patients receive during hospitalization through standard care and at six months after hospital discharge regarding empowering education (bi-ophysiological, functional, experiential, ethical, social and financial issues). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study was conducted to find whether there were differences in received knowledge through time. The sample included significant others of patients who underwent total arthroplasty in three general hospitals in Attica, Greece. The instruments used were the Received Knowledge of Hospital Patients’ Significant Other Scale and the Questionnaire of Significant Other’s Emotions. This study is part of a larger European study about empowering patient education. RESULTS: A total of 72 significant others participated in the study at discharge and 36 six months later. During hospitalisation significant others reported they had received more knowledge in the functional and biophysiological dimensions of empowering education. At six months they reported that they had received more knowledge in the functional dimension. Participants who felt more despair and grief during hospitalisation experienced more despair and impatience at six months. The more knowledge the significant others received during hospitalisation, the less anxiety they experienced. CONCLUSIONS: Significant others’ anxiety seems to increase when they do not receive as much knowledge as they would wish. The results indicate the need for supporting significant others throughout patients’ recovery. Nursing staff is ideally placed to offer such support by being “at the bedside” and by providing individualised education.