The nurse's role in the education of patients on surgical ward

The theoretical part of the bachelor thesis defines the role of a nurse-educator, the education reality consisting of the educational process, constructs, and the environment, it also concentrates on more particular introduction of the individual education topics in the pre-surgery and the post-surgery periods on a surgical ward. Four research goals were set in the empiric part of the thesis. The goals of the thesis were to find out in what ways nurses educated patients in the pre-surgery and the post-surgery periods. Further goals were to map the educational needs of patients before and after the surgery. The qualitative research form and the technique of semi-structured interviews conducted with nurses from a surgery department and patients before and after a planned surgery were chosen for the implementation of a significant part of the thesis. The criterion for the selection of respondents was that they should be patients of a surgery department with planned hospitalization longer than 2 days. The same patients were also interviewed during the post-operation period. The criterion for the selection of the nurses-respondents was that they had really worked at the standard ward of a surgery department for more than 3 months. The research sample set consisted of 9 nurses and 5 patients. Final categories and subcategories were defined based on the analyses of the carried our interviews. Educational material was prepared based on the research carried out with the patients and the nurses as the outcome from this bachelor thesis. The material was prepared in a form that enables its availability for a patient for the whole time of hospitalization. The use of the educational material can support the patient education on the surgical ward