The purpose of this basic research was to study the nurse's notes for cataract patients and to compare nursing activities as recorded in the nurse's notes with the cataract nursing guidelines. Data were collected from the nurse's notes of 102 cataract patients history files from the month of February, March and April 2000, the period during which the cataract nursing guidelines were implemented. The nurse activity assessment form was adapted from the existing cataract nursing guidelines. The content validity of the form was affirmed by five nursing authorities. The reliability of the form was at the level of 0.87 using the Kuder-Richardson coefficient. Results were derived from measures of frequency, mean, standard deviation, and t-test.

It was found that the mean for nursing activities as recorded in the nurse's notes was 20.09, whereas the mean for nursing activities stated in the cataract nursing guideline was 25.33. The results show a significant difference at p = 0.05. The item in the nursing activity that was lower than they should be in the guideline were giving the patients advice about the ward environment. This is because the nurses who wrote the nurse's notes were not the ones who gave the advice. Nursing activities concerning teaching and demonstrating to the patient's relatives how to clean the patient's eyes on the day of the operation were less likely to be recorded. In addition, these activities overlapped similar activities in teaching and demonstrating to patient how to clean their eyes before the operation and before being discharged, including the assessment of patient's self care.

It could be implied from the research findings that nurses were so accustomed to the routine jobs that they might simply overlook recording such activities in the nurse's notes. It is suggested that the nursing staff should be informed and encouraged to follow the new nursing guidelines, and instructed that they are required to record all nursing activities in the nurse's note.