Effectiveness of Nursing Intervention Protocol on Nurses’ Performance and Patients’ Self-Care after Cataract Surgery

Abstract

Context: Cataract is the leading cause of poor vision worldwide. Patients who knowledgeable and skillful nurses well prepare are better prepared to engage in appropriate self-care activities post-cataract surgery.

Aim: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of nursing intervention protocol on nurses' performance and patients’ self-care after cataract surgery.

Methods: The study followed a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design. The study was conducted in ophthalmology surgical inpatient units and the outpatient clinics at Benha University Hospital. The sample consisted of all available nurses (35) working in the ophthalmology surgical inpatient units, and the outpatient clinics who are willing and agreed to participate in the study and a convenient sample consisted of 50 patients of both genders were also included in the current study before implementing nursing intervention protocol. Three tools were used to conduct the study: A structured interview questionnaire, nurses' practice checklist, and patients’ self-care activity checklist.

Results: The results showed statistically significant improvements in nurses' performance (knowledge and practice) immediately post and one-month follow-up post-nursing intervention protocol compared with pre-nursing intervention protocol implementation (p<0.001). General improvement in patients’ self-care activities (41.6±11.042) increased significantly to (64.2±13.65) after nursing intervention protocol implementation at p=0.001. However, after one month of implementing the nursing intervention protocol, a slight decline occurred after one month (52.46±10.97) compared to pre intervention level. Highly statistically significant differences were observed at a p-value ≤0.001.

Conclusion: Findings of this study conclude that the nursing intervention protocol was effective in improving nurses' performance, which was reflected in improving the practice of patients' self-care activities cared for by nurses exposed to nursing intervention protocol implementation.  It is recommended that further studies are suggested to investigate the outcome of the implementing nursing intervention protocol on decreasing the occurrence of complications post-cataract surgery.