Abstract
Discharge instruction and education have long been considered essential components of patient care and are of particular importance to coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABGS) patients. The discharge education program for these patients was last reviewed, in this metropolitan teaching hospital, in 1996. Since then one of the goals for this patient population has been to discharge patients earlier in the recovery period. In some instances patients are being discharged as early as the fourth postoperative day. A descriptive and comparative study was designed which utilised qualitative and quantitative data to explore the problems patients experience at home and to evaluate the content of the pre-discharge education program. A convenience sample of 32 patients who had uneventful recoveries following first time coronary artery bypass graft surgery was accessed. Data were collected by medical records audit and by telephone interviews held one and six weeks after discharge. No correlations were found between the length of hospital stay and the following factors: number and type of problems/concerns; whether patients felt ready to leave hospital on the discharge day; whether patients felt they were coping after discharge, and the number of and reasons for readmission to hospital after discharge. These findings suggest that the trend to earlier patient discharge after CABGS may not influence these factors. A few changes to the education program were found to be necessary. In particular some post-operative patient problems were overlooked and the Patient Information booklet would benefit from being translated into other languages.