Implementing enhanced patient education for surgical site infection prevention in cardiac surgery

Photo at Discharge (PaD) is a nurse-led discharge strategy for enhanced wound care information for patients and healthcare providers. The purpose of this study is to describe implementation of PaD in three English cardiac centres.

A prospective, cross-sectional design was used to evaluate implementation fidelity and sustainability of PaD on various geographical settings.

Three out of four hospitals (75%) approached agreed to complete surveys on implementation fidelity. Implementing the IT component took an average of 16 months (range 11-21 months). Across the three sites, 474 nursing staff have received training on PaD. Since implementing, a combined total of 9007 patients have received PaD. A 1-month compliance snapshot indicated mean of 96% (range 92-100%).

PaD requires collaborative working, a change in behaviour and a change to the service. Despite these challenges, fidelity and sustainability scores across the sites were high. The findings from this study may help to increase implementation quality and dissemination of PaD.