Clinical pathway for myocardial infarction patients upon the knowledge and practice of nurses and patient outcomes

A quasi experimental study to assess the effectiveness of clinical pathway for Myocardial Infarction patients upon the knowledge and practice of nurses and patient outcomes was conducted at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. 70 patients undergoing PTCA and 30 nurses were selected by Purposive sampling. The post test knowledge scores was higher (M = 25.86, SD=2.39) than the pre test scores (M= 15.96, SD=2.22) with ‘t’ value 16.6 at p< 0.001. The practice scores in control group of patients were lower (M=78.33, SD=4.07) when compared to the practice scores in experimental group (M=80.7, SD=1.52) of patients with ‘t’ value 3.46 at p < 0.01. The patient satisfaction (M= 56.66, SD=8.97) and outcome (M= 18.86, SD=1.48) of control group of patients was lower when compared to the outcome of experimental group of patients (M=68.55, SD=6.87) (M=20.27, SD=1.59) with ‘t’ value 6.56 and 3.91 respectively at p<0.01. There was an association between educational status of nurses and the pretest knowledge scores of nurses and nature of work and dietary pattern, hypertension and smoking and outcome of patients.