Acute myocardial infarction is one of the most common life threatening diagnoses in hospital admissions. Most of the complications occur during the first few hours while the patients are likely to be in the hospital. Nurses are challenged to plan and provide care that promote the best clinical and health related outcomes utilizing novel care methods as clinical pathway. Clinical pathway have emerged as one of the most popular new initiatives intended to reduce costs while maintaining or even improving the quality of care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of a designed nursing clinical pathway guidelines on acute myocardial infarction patients outcomes at Benha University Hospitals. To fulfill this aim the following Research hypotheses were formulated H1) the mean total and subtotal knowledge scores of the study group subjects will be higher than those of the control group. H2) the mean total and subtotal practice scores of the study group subjects will be higher than those of the control group. H3) The mean total and subtotal compliance mean scores of the study group subjects will be higher than those of the control group. H4) Patients with acute myocardial infarction who are exposed to the designed clinical pathway guidelines will have lesser hospital stay than those who will not. H5) The frequency of post-acute myocardial infarction complications among the study group subjects will be lower than that among the control group ones. A quasi experimental design was utilized in this study. A convenience sample of 60 adult male and female patients was randomly divided into two equal and matched groups (control and study groups) (30 subjects each). The following tools were utilized for data collections; 1) Socio demographic and medical data sheet.,2) Pre-post knowledge questionnaire sheet.,3)Observational checklist .,4) Complication assessment sheet.,and5) Compliance assessment sheet., The present study revealed that All research hypotheses were supported; the mean total and subtotal knowledge, practices ,and compliance scores of the study group subjects are significantly increased immediately after implementation of the nursing clinical pathway among the study group subjects than among the control group ones . A significant shorter length of hospital stay among the study group subjects as compared to that among the control group ones is documented. As well, complications were significantly lower among the study group subjects as compared to those among the control group ones. In conclusion, nursing clinical pathway as an approach of care seemed to have a positive impact on acute myocardial infarction patient's outcomes. Further research studies on larger probability samples from different geographical locations at the Arab Republic of Egypt (ARE) are recommended to generalize the results. |
