Background: Standardized nursing measures are series of nursing interventions and
practices that help in decreasing pulmonary atelectasis after open heart surgeries.
Aim: the current study aimed to evaluate the effect of implementing standardized
nursing measures on prevention of pulmonary atelectasis among patients undergoing
open heart surgeries. Subjects and Method: Design: Quasi-experimental study
design. Setting: this study was performed at Surgical Intensive Care Unit at
Tanta International Teaching Hospital affiliated to Ministry of High Education and
Scientific Research. Subjects: A purposive sample of 80 adult conscious patients
admitted to the previously mentioned setting and was selected and divided to two
equal groups 40 patients in each. Tools: Tool I: Open Heart Surgery
Patients' Assessment Tool, tool II: Pulmonary Atelectasis Assessment Tool. Results:
In relation to signs of atelectasis, it was observed that most of the study sample (75%)
and less than half (40%) of the control group didn't have cough during the first and
the fifth postoperative day, respectively. Regarding to sings of dyspnea it was
observed that 5% of patients and more than half 52.5% of the control group had mild
dyspnea during the fifth post-operative day. Conclusion: It can be concluded that
implementation of standardized nursing measures techniques decreased signs of
postoperative pulmonary atelectasis. Recommendations: It can be recommended that
standardized nursing measures should be implemented for patients post heart
surgeries to prevent pulmonary atelectasis