Specific nursing care of children with facial cleft defects

The thesis deals with specific nursing care for children with facial cleft anomalies. Facial clefts belong to frequent congenital anomalies with incidence of 1 : 500 in lively born children, which is why adequate care has to be provided to these children to honour the founder of Czech plastic surgery Prof. František Burian. Two goals were set in this thesis. The first goal was to elaborate a proposal of a nursing procedure for children with facial cleft. The other goal was to elaborate an educational programme for nurses and parents of children with facial cleft anomalies. Both the goals have been achieved. Two hypotheses were set in this thesis: Hypothesis No. 1 ?Nurses working at a specialized department are sufficiently informed on the care about children with facial cleft anomalies?. Hypothesis No. 2 ?Nurses working at maternity wards are sufficiently informed on the care about children with facial cleft anomalies?. Two research questions were also set before the research itself: Research question No. 1: How do nurses provide specific nursing care to children with facial cleft anomalies? Research question No. 2: What principles do nurses consider important for the care about children with facial cleft anomalies? The questionnaire, interview and observation methods were used for data collection. The questionnaire was based on information obtained from literature and was designed for ward nurses. The interview was prepared upon own experience from observation of nurses in the Královské Vinohrady University Hospital in the Centre for Cleft Anomalies Treatment and upon information from literature. 60 questionnaires were distributed in the České Budějovice Hospital in March 2011. There were 47 completed questionnaires suitable for processing. 11 questionnaires were distributed in the Královské Vinohrady University Hospital in March 2011. 9 completed questionnaires were used for processing. The research sample for the interview consisted of 11 nurses working in the Královské Vinohrady University Hospital, the Centre for Cleft Anomalies Treatment, the Paediatric ICU and the Paediatric ward. The results show that the nurses working at maternity wards are sufficiently informed. The results also show how nurses provide specific nursing care and what principles they consider important. We have elaborated educational programmes for parents and nurses within the set goals and upon the interviews with nurses, which may help improve the nursing care and particularly teach parents to care about their children with facial cleft properly