Parent education discharge instruction program for care of children at home after cardiac surgery in Southern India

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionIn many developing countries, children with CHD are now receiving surgical repair or palliation for their complex medical condition. Consequently, parents require more in-depth discharge education programmes to enable them to recognise complications and manage their children’s care after hospital discharge. This investigation evaluated the effectiveness of a structured nurse-led parent discharge teaching programme on nurse, parent, and child outcomes in India.Materials and methodsA quasi-experimental investigation compared nurse and parent home care knowledge before and at two time points after the parent education discharge instruction program’s implementation. Child surgical-site infections and hospital costs were compared for 6 months before and after the discharge programme’s implementation.ResultsBoth nurses (n=63) and parents (n=68) participated in this study. Records of 195 children who had undergone cardiac surgery were reviewed. Nurses had a high-level baseline home care knowledge that increased immediately after the discharge programme’s implementation (T1=24.4±2.89; T2=27.4±1.55; p<0.005; 30 point scale), but decreased to near baseline (T3=23.8±3.4; ns) 4 months after the programme’s implementation. Nurse teaching documentation increased by 56% after the programme’s implementation. Parent knowledge scores increased from 1.76±1.4 for Cohort 1 to 3.68±0.852 for Cohort 2 (p<0.005; 0–4 scale) after the discharge programme’s implementation. Surgical-site infections decreased from 27% in Cohort 1 to 2% in Cohort 2 (p>0.05) after the programme’s implementation.ConclusionNurse, parent, and child outcomes were improved after implementation of the structured nurse-led parent discharge programme for parents in India. Structured nurse-led parent discharge programmes may help prepare parents to provide better home care for their children after cardiac surgery. Further investigation of causality and influencing factors is warranted.