Effectiveness of Nursing Practice Guidelines in Palliative Care Discharge Planning, Chonburi Hospital

Abstract

                   This one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design aimed at comparing the effectiveness of nursing practice guidelines in palliative care discharge planning. The sample consisted of (1) 45 terminally ill patients, who registered for palliative care at the Palliative Care Unit until discharge (2) 45 professional nurses providing palliative care for the terminally ill patients. The research instrument was the nursing practice guidelines. Data collection instruments consisted of (1) knowledge appraisal form on symptom assessment (2) the self-care ability and disruptive symptom management assessment form (3) the terminally ill patients’ satisfaction form (4) the professional nurse’s satisfaction form.  Content validity was 1. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were .78, .81, .79 and .82, respectively. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test.

                   The results revealed that the terminally ill patients had knowledge and ability in assessing their symptoms, self-care and management of their disruptive symptoms and the overall satisfaction after using the nursing care guidelines was statistically significant higher than before using the nursing care guidelines at .05. The satisfaction of the professional nurses, who used the nursing care guidelines were higher than before using the nursing care guidelines at .05. Therefore, providing specific knowledge, particularly practices consistent with care planning, and rehearsing were considerably essential to promote the patients and relatives to have ability and confidence on self-care.  Systematic caring and periodical follow-ups could increase effectiveness and reduce complications, thereby released the patients from suffering and have better quality of life.