A postoperative care communication kit for Operation Smile Philippines

• Main Authors: Pineda, Kara Isabel L., Remigio, Kiara D., Sabater, Juliann Chriselle F.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Operation Smile Philippines; Cleft Lip; Cleft palate; Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11222
• Institution: De La Salle University

Operation Smile Philippine (OSP) is a private non-government and non-profit organization that provides free reconstructive surgery to young adults and children who are afflicted with facial irregularity particularly cleft palate and cleft lip in the Philippines. This is made possible through the beneficence of donors, volunteers and medical professionals. After the proponents conducted a thorough communication audit, it was revealed that OSP inadequately communicates the postoperative care instructions to the parents or guardians of the patients, which leads to complications and a waste of resources and efforts of the organization. OSP also has no existing communication material that can aid the parents or guardians in performing their role properly in taking care of the patients. Rather, they solely rely on information through informal and verbal communication (word of mouth) of the medical volunteers, which lead to non-retention of instructions. The proponents sought to address the problem by providing OSP with a Postoperative Care Communication Kit that contains (1) a PowerPoint Presentation to be used as an aid for the medical volunteers in explaining postoperative instructions, (2) a Postoperative Care Booklet to be given to the parents or guardians, (3) Educational Flashcards that will illustrate specific measures that must be followed and lastly, (4) a Communication Manual that will guide the medical volunteers to effectively use the new materials.