Perioperative documentation in Czech republic

Now that the nursing process, along with good-quality nursing documentation, is being introduced into all areas of patient care, the need arises to document work of perioperative nurses in the operating theatre. Perioperative documentation is entirely different from nursing documentation, not only in terms of processing but also in terms of scope.This thesis consists of two parts: Theoretical and Empirical. The Theoretical focuses on the general issue of medical documentation used at the various hospital departments. The aim of the work was to (1) map current situation in the area of perioperative documentation at selected hospitals; (2) ascertain which components perioperative documentation is composed of; (3) find the opinion of nurses on the use of perioperative documentation; and (4) set up perioperative documentation. The research part of the thesis was a combination of quantitative and qualitative survey. For the quantitative survey, questionnaires were prepared and distributed to perioperative nurses working in operating theatres of hospitals throughout the Czech Republic. Two hypotheses were proposed. 1. Perioperative documentation is maintained at operating theatres. 2. Nurses consider perioperative documentation useful. Qualitative examination consisted in comparative analysis of perioperative documentation folders. The research set consisted of six perioperative documentation folders obtained from hospitals throughout the Czech Republic. Answers to the following three questions were sought: (1) Is perioperative documentation used at operating theatres? (2) Which parts is perioperative documentation composed of? (3) Does perioperative documentation comply with applicable legislation? The results were analyzed and processed into tables and graphs. The results show that nurses use perioperative documentation at operating theatres. From the research it follows that the processing of the perioperative folders is not fully compliant with applicable legislation. Although mandatory data are included in the vast majority of perioperative folders, the nursing process, as the information which is most important for nursing care, is missing from all of the perioperative folders analyzed. Despite this, nurses consider perioperative documentation useful, not only from the medical aspect but also from the legal, financial and informative aspects. The results of this research may stimulate creation of a unified model of perioperative documentation. This work may also serve as information material for students of medical disciplines