1. Wound infection rate: the authors found 2.36% of patients had wound infection, 1 of these
patients got cheiloplasty, in this case, after the operation the care giver can not dress their child wound correctly because in hospital nurse gave information and demonstration about taking care of the wound to the mother, but when patient went home his grandmother took care of the wound. Grandmothers can often have big influence on the parents about taking care of children in Thailand especially in rural area. The authors also evaluated the grandmothers ability with wound dressing when they cameback for follow-up and wefound that she can not do it correctly, so nurse need to re-evaluate the process of information giving and need assessment of who will influence/take care of the child when back home then try to encourage to learn how to take care their children. 2 cases of correction had stitch abscess because the absorbable stitch did not absorb in the right time.
2. Receiving Information: 100% of patients receive information, but not about all items and some
items parents/care giver can not understand so more time is needed to give the information or improve the
way of giving information and repeat the information again when they leave the hospital.
3. Satisfaction: 55-100%, average 91.8% of patients satisfaction, in detail, the authors found that care givers would like a longer stay in hospital, because not confident if their children will be safe when back home within 2 days after operation, so nurses need to inspire confidence that everything is fine with their child and encourage them to take care of their child.
4. Unplanned readmission: only 1 case unplanned readmission because of flap necrosis.
5. Length of stay: patients were admitted for 2.74 days in hospital. It is the standard of cleft care.
From the result the authors found that information is very important for the patients with
craniofacial anomalies to prepare patients and family to face their situation and prevent infection. So the authors should develop the way to give patients/family information.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thanks Nursing Division Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen Thailand and Center of Cleft Lip Palate and Craniofacial Deformites, Khon Kaen University in association with “Tawanchai Project” for supporting this project.
Potential conflicts of interest
None.