Thoughts and Attitudes of Surgical Nurses on Planned Discharge Education and Influencing Factors

The shortening of the discharge time due to technological developments requires the patients to be discharged with sufficient information about the recovery process they will spend at home. Consequently, discharge planning and patient education are becoming more and more important in surgical patient care day by day. The aim of the study is to determine the thoughts and attitudes of surgical nurses related to discharge of patients after surgery and influencing factors. This descriptive study included 192 surgical nurses. Data were obtained with a questionnaire designed by researchers. It was found that 83.3% of the nurses provided discharge education to the patients and 71.9% of them implemented this education in a planned manner. In addition, while most of the nurses planned discharge education at the time of discharge, only 38.3% planned it at the time of hospitalization. Planned discharge education is usually given in the patient's room (93.0%), verbally (98.3%), taking into account the patient's age and education level (79.1%). Wound care (80.0%), self-care activities (79.1%) and drug therapy (73.0%) were the top three training topics. The institution where the nurse works, the clinic and the number of patients cared for in each shift are the top three factors affecting the provision of planned discharge education.