Effects of a case management program for cardiac surgery patients on professional nurses' perception of case management role practices in the cardiac surgery department of a tertiary hospital

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study employed a two-group pretest–posttest design to compare professional nurses’ perceptions of case management role performance between nurses who participated in a cardiac surgery patient case management program and those who received routine practice. The sample consisted of 50 professional nurses working in a cardiac surgery ward, assigned to an experimental group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 25). The research instruments included a cardiac surgery patient case management program developed based on case management concepts and a questionnaire measuring nurses’ perceptions of case management role performance. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired    t-tests, and independent t-tests.

The research findings revealed that after participating in the case management program, the experimental group had a high mean score of perceived case manager role performance (M = 4.42, SD = 0.40), which was higher than that of the control group whose mean score was at a low level (M = 2.45, SD = 0.12). The independent t-test indicated a statistically significant difference between the two groups (t = -23.63, p < .05).

The findings suggest that nursing administrators should implement case management concepts or programs for cardiac surgery patients to enhance understanding through role-appropriate task assignment for critical or semi-critical patients, thereby improving patient safety management.