Abstract

Background and Aim: Discharged patients from the hospital to home after cardiac surgery require planning, guidance, and recommendations from health care providers that the patient must follow to avoid expected complications. The current study aimed to assess nurses’ knowledge about the discharge plan for patients after cardiac surgery at the Sudan Heart Institute.

Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study enrolled 85 nurses and was conducted at the Sudan Heart Institute from January to May 2019. Data were collected using a structured self-designed questionnaire containing different aspects of the discharge plan to assess nurses’ knowledge using multiple-choice questions.

Results: The results of this study showed that 70% of the study population were females from 26–30 years old, 83% of the participants were single, and most nurses had a Bachelor’s degree (75%). There was a significant difference between the participants’ experience and the nurses’ knowledge level about the discharge plan (p=0.01). Overall, the nurses’ knowledge about the discharge plan was good at 78%.

Conclusions: This study showed the participants had good knowledge of the discharge plan programs for patients after cardiac surgery.

Key words: Nurses, knowledge, discharge plan, cardiac surgery