الفهرس 
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Abstract
Major abdominal surgery is any upper gastrointestinal, hepato-pancreatobiliary and colorectal surgical resection with either primary anastomosis and/or stoma. It has different emergent or elective indications for benign or malignant conditions of gastrointestinal tract. Although major abdominal surgery is the cornerstone of treatment of many intra-abdominal pathologies, it involves complex procedures that is associated with postoperative complications and increased length of hospitalization. Most of patients suffering from slow recovery and functional decline after major abdominal surgery, which affect the overall quality of life so, functional recovery is a very important outcome after surgery. According to this, the nurse has an important role in performing perioperative assessments and utilizing the results of assessments in perioperative interventions in order to measure and improve the quality of abdominal surgical nursing care to achieve high quality health services and shorten hospitalization period which lead to improve the patients’ functional status and quality of life.
The aim of this study was:
To assess functional abilities of patients post major abdominal surgery.
Materials and method:
Research design:
Descriptive research design was utilized to meet the aim of the present study.
Setting:
This study was conducted at the inpatient surgical departments of Alexandria Main University Hospital include Liver, biliary & pancreatic, GIT and Colorectal surgical departments.
Subjects:
Based on Epi info 7 program, a convenience sample of 100 adult patients post major abdominal surgery from both sexes were selected from the above-mentioned settings according to the following criteria:
• Adult patients aged from 21 to 60 years. At 3rd -5th day post major abdominal surgery and after discharge at the first follow up appointment assigned for the patient.
• Independent in activities of daily living (ADLs) before the surgery.
• Able to communicate.
• Accept to participate in the current study.
Tools of the study:
In order to fulfill the aim of the study, two tools were used for data collection.
Tool I: Functional abilities tool:
This tool was developed by Craven and Hirnle in 2012. It was adapted by the researcher after review of relevant literature. It was divided into two parts:
Part I: included:
a) Socio-demographic data as: patient’s age, sex, level of education, occupation, marital status, area of residence and income.
b) Health history; family and patient’s past medical history of hepatic diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, familial adenomatous polyposis or malignancy.
c) Clinical data included:
- Previous clinical data as: previous hospitalization and its reasons, previous abdominal surgery and type of surgery.
- Present clinical data as: medical diagnosis, chief complaints, type of current surgery and its date, date of discharge and date of follow up.
Part II: Activities of daily livings and Motor activities:
This part included data as the following:
• Items related to daily living activities as: personal hygiene, dressing, grooming, toileting, and feeding.
• Items related to motor activities as: sitting, standing, transferring, and using stairs.
Tool II: Instrumental activities of daily livings (The Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale):
This scale was originally designed by Lawton & Brody in 1969. The scale then was adapted by Carla Graf in 2008. The tool was adapted according to jury and consisted of: housework activities included (food preparation, housekeeping and laundry), shopping and transportation.
Data collection:
A convenience sample of one hundred adult patients post major abdominal surgery who met the inclusion criteria were interviewed individually for 30-45 minutes.
Every patient was interviewed at the inpatient unit during the first 3 to 5 days post-surgery in which Tool I was used to collect sociodemographic data, health history, clinical data, activities of daily living and motor activities. After patient’s discharge and based on previous telephone call arrangement, every patient was interviewed at the inpatient unit during their follow up period after average of one week in which Tool-part II was used to help to identify the progress of patient’s activities of daily living and motor activities from the postoperative period to the time of follow up and Tool II was used to assess instrumental activities of daily living. Data collection was initiated covering a period of 10 months from July 2018 to April 2019.