Study impact of a designed nursing intervention protocol on performing self-care activities among rheumatoid arthritic women

الملخص EN

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of a designed nursing intervention protocol on performing self-care activities among arthritic women.

Four research hypothesis were formulated : 1-the mean knowledge scores of patients who will receive instruction about self-care activities will be higher than that of a control group.2-the mean practice scores of patients who will apply self-care practices will be higher than the mean practice scores of a control group.

3-there will be a positive correlation between knowledge and practice scores obtained by the study group subjects than that among the control group subjects.4-the incidence of joint deformity, stiffness and pain among patient who will receive instructions about self-care activities will be lesser than that of the control group.

Aquasi-experimental research design was utilized in this study on 60 female patients they were allocated randomly into two groups, study and control (30 patients each) who are referred to the physical medicine and rehabilitation department and out patient of Assiut University Hospital with the following criteria; been ambulatory, educable, both literate and illiterate, their age ranged between 20-50years and agree to participate in the study.

Tools used for data collection are; Intervention questionnaire sheet, observation checklists and assessment sheet.

Designed protocol was applied to reduce pain and stiffness, prevent joint destruction, deformity, loss of function and allow the patient to achieve maximum independence.

Pre-test was carried out before conduction of the designed protocol on the arthritic women, in addition to post-testing, two weeks after implementation and one month.

Results of the study documented that there was a significant improvement in arthritic women knowledge and practices and reached an optimum level of independence for daily living activities (p ≤ 0.001 of most items) after implementation of the designed protocol.

Incidence of pain, swelling and dealing with daily activities was a highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) post protocol as compared to their pre application state.

In conclusion, education of arthritic women is necessary to achieve an optimum level of functioning.

Replication of this study on larger probability sample is highly recommended.