Developing and validating job description for staff nurses working in coronary care units

The role of the coronary care Unit nurse in the Ain Shams university Hospital and Ain shams specialized hospital need to be clarified and standardized thus aim of this study to determining the contents of the job description from the points of view of nurse leaders and staff nurses, identifying the activities performed by staff nurses working at coronary care unit based on direct observation, and verifying job description according to expert's opinion. The sample consisted of staff nurses working in coronary care unit and nurse leaders in Ain Shams university Hospital and specialized Hospital. The total sample of the studied sample was 126 [51] staff nurses [75] nurse leaders. The data collection took about nine months, questionnaire and observational checklist and validity tools were developed. The questionnaire tool to determining the contents of the job description from the points view of nurse leaders and staff nurses. Observational checklist developed to identifying the activation performed by staff nurses working at coronary care unit based on direct observation. The opennionaire sheet to verifying the proposed job description was developed. The main findings regarding this study are total agreement of nurse leaders and staff nurses upon suggested coronary care unit nurse job description. The study revealed that the total performance of staff nurses related to tasks according to Hospitals was in specialized Hospital has high performance regarding assessment and implementation activities with 100.0% with adequate performance [60%+]. But the lowest performance in the same hospital was 69.2% with adequate performance regarding to evaluation activities on the other hand regarding to Ain Shams university Hospital the high performance was related to assessment 87.5% with adequate performance [60%+] while the lower performance at the same setting was 29.2% with adequate performance related to evaluation activities. Finally, the experts were agreed upon almost of items of the proposed job descriptions

Early and short term postoperative outcome of mitral valve replacement in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease at Assiut University Hospitals

Rheumatic heart disease and its consequent valvular lesions is a major health problem in Egypt. Mitral valve replacement [MVR] is a routine procedure in cardiac surgery with considerable benefits in terms of postoperative quality of life and survival. To assess early [30days] and short term [3-6 months] outcome of patients with mitral valve disease undergoing MVR in our locality. This study was conducted on 72 patients [46 women and 26 men, with mean age of 28.2 +/- 12 years] with rheumatic mitral valve disease underwent MVR at Assiut University Hospital from January 2005 to May 2007. Preoperative, operative, and postoperative data were prospectively collected and analyzed as regards structural and hemodynamic outcome using echocardiography with its all modalities. Also, postoperative morbidity and mortality were determined. Fifteen post-operative morbidity occurred in 12 patients [16.6%], 10 occurred early [<30 days] and 5 late [>30 days]. Early post-operative morbidity occurred due to non-valve related causes in 60% of cases as acute heart failure, cardiogenic shock and electrolyte disturbances, and in 40% of cases due to valve related causes as prosthetic valve thrombosis, early prosthetic valve endocarditis and periprosthetic valve leakage. All late post-operative morbidity were caused by valve-related causes as late prosthetic valve endocarditis, prosthetic valve thrombosis and periprosthetic valve leakage. The 30-day hospital mortality was 6.9% [n=5], 60% of deaths were due to non-valve related causes, and 40% with valve related causes were identified as independent risk factors. Late postoperative mortality occurred in 2.8% [n=2] and all of them were due to valve related causes. Mitral valve replacement for patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease offers I satisfactory early and short-term results with excellent symptomatic improvement. Our institutional surgical results are comparable to the international results regarding postoperative morbidity and mortality