Impact of Nursing Management Protocol on Selected Postoperative Outcomes among Children with Open Heart Surgery at Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital

Open-heart surgery is a common medical procedure that can save lives and improve the quality of heart. The current study was conducted to evaluate the impact of nursing management protocol on selected postoperative outcomes among children with open heart surgery at Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital. The study utilized a prepost-test quasi-experimental research design. A total sample of 70 children who were undergoing open heart surgery was selected from the surgical unit. Data required for the study were collected through the use of three data collection tools developed by the researcher. The first one is structured interview schedule which includes the sociodemographic data about children and their families it also involve history of child's illness. The second one was the postoperative assessment data sheet to assess the children during postoperative phase. It includes established child postoperative outcomes criteria related to: (1) respiratory functions such as: rate, depth, pattern, cough, oxygen saturation, PaO2 and PaCO2; (2) wound condition; (3) renal functions and characteristics of urine; (4) chest tubes drainage system. The third one was the designed nursing management protocol. It is apparent from the current study's results that, there were highly statistically significant differences between the means of the readings in the pre and post application of the nursing management protocol at first and second days after surgery regarding respiratory rate, pulse, temperature, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. As well as, there were highly statistically significant differences between the means of readings in the pre and post application of the nursing management protocol at first and second days after surgery as regards oxygen saturation, Pao2, Pco2, serum creatinine and urea amount of chest drainage/hr. The study results concluded that, the effectiveness of the designed nursing management protocol on improving postoperative outcomes among children who participated in the current study. The study recommended the integration of the designed nursing management protocol in the care of children undergoing open heart surgeries in postoperative cardiac intensive care units. [Marwa Abd Ekreem Ibrahim; Elham M. Ahmed; Mohamed Aboul Ezz and Soheir Abd-Rabou Mohamed. Impact of Nursing Management Protocol on Selected Postoperative Outcomes among Children with Open Heart Surgery at Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital. J Am Sci 2012;8(12):1022-1031]. (ISSN: 15451003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 139