The Effect of Orem Self‑Care Program on Sleep Quality, Daily Activities, and Lower Extremity Edema in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Postoperative complications of open heart surgery require extensive care, especially by the patient. One of the important strategies in this regard is self‑care education and one of the well‑known patterns is Orem self‑care model. This study aimed to investigating the effect of Orem‑based self‑care program on sleep quality, daily activities, and lower extremity edema in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

This clinical trial study was performed on 74 patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery in Kashani Hospital in Shahrekord. The patients were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Data were collected using need assessment form according to the Orem model, quality of life and activity daily living questionnaire and measurement of edema by the meters. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics with SPSS software.

The sleep quality score in the intervention group immediately after the intervention and 2 months after, was significantly lower in the intervention group than in the control group (P = 0.001). In the intervention group immediately after the intervention and 2 months after, the daily activity score was significantly higher than the control group (P < 0.05) 2 months after intervention, edema score in intervention group was significantly lower than the control group (P = 0.006).

Results of the recent study showed that the implementation of the Orem‑based self‑care program can reduce the postoperative complications and the use of nursing patterns, such as Orem, to enhance self‑care ability in patients who require long‑term care can be very effective.