Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Improving Triage Accuracy In The Emergency Department, Joselyn Silverman

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: High rates of patients being mis-triaged was occurring at Hospital X leading to poor patient outcomes and incorrect staffing levels.

Context: This quality improvement project took place at Hospital X’s emergency department. A stakeholder analysis and a microsystem assessment along with a staff survey was created in order to determine areas of improvement and staff responsiveness.

Interventions: Eight educational seminars were conducted along with Hospital X leadership and students created supplemental materials for the staff to use on a daily basis.

Measures: Two data pulls were conducted over the course of the quality improvement project; one prior to the …

Environmental And Occupational Health Risks: Educating Undergraduate (Adn-Bsn) Nursing Students For Safer Practice, Dorinda A. Mercado

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: Globally, adverse health effects, including deaths and disabilities, occur from living or working in unhealthy domains where exposure to environmental and occupational hazards exists. A multitude of these hazards are present in clinical settings in the healthcare environment where nurses care for patients and risk ongoing exposures to toxic substances.

Problem: Environmental and occupational health education is rarely included in the standard undergraduate nursing curriculum, contributing to a deficit among nurses in environmental health awareness and knowledge.

Methods: The study design was a pre/post evaluation of a single cohort (n=32) of undergraduate nursing students to assess environmental and occupational …

Educating Medical-Surgical Nurses In A Large Hospital Organization On Sepsis Bundle Elements, Amanda H. Tran

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: According to a pre-survey collected, approximately six percent of medical-surgical nurses report expert knowledge with the “Inpatient Handoff Sepsis Bundle Checklist,” a checklist that details interventions to be taken when a patient is diagnosed with sepsis. About thirty-five percent of these nurses also report expert confidence levels in caring for sepsis patients. Therefore, there is an opportunity to provide education so that nurses may confidently and competently care for sepsis patients.

Context: A medical-surgical unit at Hospital A affiliated with a large, non-profit, integrated healthcare system located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Intervention: Create an educational handout to …

Increasing Sepsis Bundle Compliance Through Nurse Education, Parth S. Papaiya

Master's Projects and Capstones

There exists opportunities for improvement in regards to sepsis management and compliance rates in efforts to reduce sepsis-related complications and incidents in the ED. SEP-1 fallouts and requirements linked to education gaps about sepsis bundle protocols, nurses’ attitudes about implementation of the protocols, and differences in nurse/physician order sets present as deterrents for timely sepsis management and improvements in the rates of compliance/adherence. Denouncing the usage of standardized protocols/use of order sets have been identified as a process gap and a much needed opportunity for improvement. It is presumed that the failure to implement, in addition to improper documentation of …

The Dedicated Education Unit: Increasing Capacity And Confidence, Heather Marie Van Housen

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: In the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) 2020 annual survey, nursing schools turned away 66,274 entry-level applications to baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States due to a faculty shortage and clinical placement sites (AACN, 2021).

Local Problem: Hospitals need more qualified nurses to meet community needs. The need for clinical faculty and additional clinical placement sites disrupts the workforce pipeline through local nursing schools. A new approach to clinical education is needed to prepare more students for the growing complexities of independent nursing practice.

Methods: Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) implementation to expand pre-licensure nursing student clinical …