SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JOURNAL REPORT

Significance to client: DASH is an outcome assessment tool that measures the symptoms and the functional status of patients with upper extremity disorders and it is used to compare the relative impacts of those disorders and Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common compressive neuropathy in the upper extremity. The Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (CTQ) is a disease-specific tool that was developed specifically for patients with CTS. These tools mentioned above help different patient of diverse biocultural entities to recognize and be aware of the different signs and symptoms of CTS with the aid of a professional health worker. Significance to Nursing Education: As a student nurse, this journal report would add on the general knowledge about the current trend in the use of different assessment tools in CTS that will guide not only me but also the nurses as well in implementing an innovation and better performance in implementing physical assessment, planning for care, anticipated outcomes and evaluation of the patients recovery. Many fields are also touched in this study. This information would help any students who are in line with the science and art of nursing related to orthopedics to seriously approach and intervene to a patient so that an efficient and effective nursing care can be provided. Significance to Nursing Research: K-DASH was found to have a large degree of responsiveness after carpal tunnel release for Korean patients with CTS, which is comparable to the other language versions of the DASH. Although it was less responsive than the disease specific CTQ, the region-specific K-DASH can be used as an effective outcome measurement tool for CTS, and especially for research that compares the CTS with other upper limb conditions. With these findings of the study, there is a relationship between K-DASH and CTS in which innovations in health care can be addressed. This study is somehow a part of the general study and can be use by future researchers who are interested in the same topic and encourage also nursing practitioners to come up with new innovations orthopedic care since innovations in nursing practice must be addressed promptly and attentively. Significance to Local Settings: The study stressed on the relationship of K-DASH and CTS and it was found that there is weak correlation between them. Having said that, the different health practitioners here in the Philippines may also us this study if the result will be the same among Filipino patients and the DASH can be also translated to our own Filipino language.

SUMMARY

One hundred patients were prospectively recruited for the study, but incomplete preoperative responses, concurrent upper limb disorder and loss of follow-up led to forty-four patients being excluded from the final data analysis. Data analysis was performed for the remaining fifty-six patients who had filled out the preoperative and postoperative questionnaires, including the K-DASH and the Boston CTQ. The patients underwent either unilateral or simultaneous bilateral open carpal tunnel release by a single surgeon with the patients under local anesthesia. Evaluations were performed preoperatively and six months postoperatively. The six-month period was chosen because a previous study has shown that patients who have carpal tunnel release tend to plateau in functional and symptom improvement six months after surgery when assessed via a questionnaire. DASH quantifies the general disabilities related to the upper extremity. The questionnaire consists mainly of a 30-item scale concerning the patient's health status during the preceding week. The CTQ is a patient-based outcome measure that was specifically developed for patients with CTS. It has two distinct scales: 1) the symptom severity scale (symptom CTQ) that has 11 questions and it uses a five-point rating scale, and the 2) functional status scale (function CTQ) and it contains 8 items that have to be rated for the degree of difficulty on a five-point scale. After the gathering of data, the data was tabulated and analyzed using the SPSS 13.0 version.

Saint Louis University School of Nursing

JOURNAL REPORT
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements in Nursing Care Management - RLE

Binumnga, Dalmas Jr, A.

Submitted to: Sir Valera Clinical Instructor

Baguio General Hospital Hospital Orthopedic Ward 3-11 shift

12 / 09 / 11