title: The impact of discharge plan upon re-admission, satisfaction with nursing care and the ability to self-care for coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Grafting coronary arteries and post operative recovery has many challenges, which can be ameliorated through continues care and an appropriate discharge plan. Therefore, the current study was undertaken aiming to evaluate the impact of discharge plan on satisfaction with nursing care, ability to self-care, and incidence of re-admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a quasi experimental study involving patients who were due to undergo coronary artery bypass graft in Chamran Hospital in 2010. In the intervention group, the discharge plan was initiated at the time of admission and continued for 2 weeks after discharge by home visit and telephone follow ups. Satisfaction with nursing care was assessed 2 days after discharge, whilst patients' ability for self-care was measured 6 weeks and 3 months post discharge and the incidence of re-admission was determined at the 3 months point.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Satisfaction levels with nursing care and the ability to take self-care were higher in intervention group comparing with control group (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference for self-care ability between pre test and post test in both groups but the improvement was more pronounced for the intervention group (p = 0.04). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of re-admission incidence after 3 months (p = 0.15).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that the discharge plan, as a method of continual care plan, can lead to higher satisfaction levels and enhanced self-care abilities of patients. Such discharge plan can therefore be utilised as an effective method of continuous care for patients who are going to undergo coronary artery bypass graft.
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran. dehghann@tums.ac.ir
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Negarandeh
authors.forename: Nahid Dehghan
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Nayeri
authors.forename: Farimah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shirani
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Janani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000451:nursing* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D011859:Radiography; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*