Authors

1Sagrario Ibarrola Izura, 2Mónica Vázquez Calatayud, 3Cristina Oroviogoicoechea, 4Elena Beortegui Urdánoz

Position

¹Enfermera. Unidad de Hospitalización de Cardiología. Clínica Universidad de Navarra. ²Estudiante de doctorado. Máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería.³Doctora en Enfermería.⁴Máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería. Área de Investigación, Formación y Desarrollo en Enfermería. Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

Contact address

Sagrario Ibarrola Izura. Avda. Pio XII, 36. 31008 Pamplona.

Contact email: sibarrolai@unav.es

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate an intervention in order to improve the preparation for hospital discharge in cardiac surgery patients.
Materials and methods: a quasi-experimental longitudinal study. Control arm (CA): Patients with cardiac surgery and regular nursing treatment; Intervention arm (IA): Patients with cardiac surgery and health education under protocol before discharge (Appendix I). CA data were collected during the previous months to the intervention in nursing practice, and IA data were collected since three months after introducing the intervention. In both groups, information was collected during hospitalization for the intervention and one month after, coinciding with the examination date.
Through validated questionnaires applied by the researchers, the following were measured in patients: satisfaction with care, level of knowledge, and degree of treatment adherence; while the impact of the introduction of the intervention in practice was measured in nurses through an ad hoc questionnaire.
Results: the patient sample was homogeneous: (CA= 20) and (IA= 23). Patient satisfaction was high in both arms, with a mean score of 4.6 (on a scale of 1 to 5). At one month of discharge, a significant improvement in knowledge was observed in the IA (CA= 0.22 (0.2) IA= -0.08 (0.31) p< 0.01)); there was a significant improvement in the number of times both groups did some exercise per week, and the time in minutes was higher in the IA. There was a significant reduction in cholesterol-rich foods in both groups (z= -0.905, p= 0.366).
Nurse satisfaction with patient education before and after the intervention was not significant (z= -0.455, p= 0.115), though there was a considerable improvement in those aspects associated with resources available for education in the Intervention Arm.
Conclusions: the intervention is effective regarding the patients’ level of knowledge, though its effect on their healthy habit profile is not so noticeable. This fact might be due to patient age, or habit modification may require more time.

Keywords:

Health education; nursing intervention; cardiac surgery; patient dischargequasi-experimental study

Versión en Español

Título:

Evaluación de una intervención enfermera para la educación para la salud en pacientes intervenidos de cirugía cardiaca