Application of patient journey mapping in nursing care pathway management for patients undergoing keratoprosthesis implantation

Background　Keratoprosthesis transplantation serves as the definitive vision-restoring therapy for patients with complex corneal blindness. Nevertheless, lifelong postoperative management is required, which demands multidisciplinary collaboration and sustained nursing support. At present, a systematic full-cycle nursing management framework remains absent. Objective　To explore the application efficacy of patient journey mapping in disease course nursing management for patients receiving keratoprosthesis transplantation. Methods　Based on the methodology of patient journey mapping, semi-structured indepth interviews were conducted with 16 patients after keratoprosthesis transplantation. Participant observation and medical record review were also adopted, and thematic analysis was utilized to summarize and analyze all collected data. Results　Along the clinical timeline, the disease course of patients was divided into five stages: pre-diagnosis period, surgical decision-making period, acute postoperative adaptation period, home rehabilitation period, and long-term coexistence period, from five dimensions including behaviors, touchpoints, emotions, pain points and opportunity points. A total of 44 themes were extracted, and the patient journey map was established accordingly. Conclusion　Disease management for patients undergoing keratoprosthesis transplantation is lifelong and complex. Patient journey mapping enables accurate identification of core demands at each clinical stage, provides evidence for constructing nurse-led integrated full-cycle nursing services, and facilitates the improvement of overall nursing quality