Development of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Postoperative Patients with Facial Fracture, Plastic Surgery Ward, Udonthani Hospital

Abstract

This action research aimed to develop the clinical practice guidelines for postoperative patients as well as to examine the effectiveness of the guidelines. The samples consisted of 10 registered nurses who took care of the patients with facial fracture, Plastic Surgery Ward, Udonthani Hospital. The research instrument was a three-part questionnaire including the personal data, the nurse’s opinions regarding the quality of the guidelines with the reliability of .92, and the nurse’s satisfaction toward the guidelines with the reliability of .83. The implementation and data collection were conducted from March to August, 2017. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation.

The research results revealed that the clinical practice guidelines for postoperative patients were composed of seven sub-guidelines following to the nursing diagnosis including 1) upper airway obstruction, 2) bleeding, 3) facial pain, 4) soft tissue injury, 5) oral infection, 6) poor health education for facial injury, and 7) malnutrition or weight loss. Nurses had the overall mean score of opinions regarding the quality of the guidelines at the very good level (M = 4.36, SD = .71) and they had the overall mean score of satisfaction toward the guidelines at the highest level (M = 4.42, SD = .51).

This research suggests that nurses who work at Plastic Surgery Ward, Udonthani Hospital should apply this clinical practice guidelines for postoperative patients to care the patients with facial fracture according to the patient’s contexts.