Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Reducing Iv Infiltrates In The Neonatal Population, Stephanie L. Miller

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The objective of the CNL project is to improve the quality of care provided to our patients. The project focuses efforts to reduce IV infiltrates by auditing all running IV lines, IV management monitoring and auditing infiltrate grading and documentation to find commonalities that could be causing infiltrates.

The project is focusing on the neonatal population at a children’s hospital in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This NICU is an 80 bed unit that houses both critical care patients and intermediate care neonates.

Auditing was a major component to the project and helped with identifying common causes so …

Breast Cancer Specimen Collection, Handling & Adherence To Asco/Cap Guidelines, Vicki F. Rocconi

Master's Projects and Capstones

Breast Cancer Specimen Collection, Handling & Adherence to ASCO/CAP Guidelines

Background

Specimens removed from their blood supply begin to degrade immediately. Specimens are placed in formalin to halt the process of degradation. Under or over-exposure of specimens to formalin can result in false positive or false negative test results for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors & Her-2/neu receptors.

Goals & Objectives

Improve the process of breast cancer specimen collection & handling and insure that the process is consistent with ASCO/CAP Guidelines (College of American Pathologists, 2013). The objectives included: Documentation of the time the specimen was removed from the blood supply. …

Implementing Ways To Reduce Catheter-Associated Urinary Infections (Cautis), Maryam Keyhani

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Center for Control and Disease Prevention (CDC), estimates that 40% of all Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are related to Hospital-acquired Infections (HAIs) (CDC, 2013). The Facility where the project was done consists of oncology, orthopedic, medical-surgical, telemetry, incentive care, and step-down units. This hospital with 242 licensed beds has approximately 51,571 ER visits and a total of 10,606 admissions per year.The prevalence of Cather-associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs) on the 4th floor, the medical-surgical unit with 42 beds was significantly higher than other units. The hospital goal is to increase patient safety and satisfaction as well as reduce and …

Chronic Pain Management In The Inpatient Care Setting, Addie J. Mcclendon

Master's Projects and Capstones

The objective of this quality control initiative was to improve the comfort level of nurses caring for patient with chronic pain, as well as patient satisfaction with nursing pain interventions on an inpatient medical surgical unit with a high population of patients with chronic pain (as much as 30%). Nurses and patients were surveyed using a brief survey to determine the baseline comfort levels of comfort with chronic pain management. The results of the initial survey and current evidence for chronic pain management techniques were used to construct an inforgraphic for nurse education. The nurses were educated on evidence based …

Preventing And Reducing Clabsi With Daily 2% Chg Wipes, Karen Ha

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project aims to decrease central line associated bloodstream infections in pediatric patients my microsystem hospital. The process begins re-enforcing daily CHG (2% Chlorhexidine Gluconate) wipes to 100% compliance rates on our patients with central lines tailored to their age and body weights. The process ends with reducing the CLABSI rates of our unit and the entire hospital to 0. By working on the process we expect personal and organizational commitment to transform the culture of safety through integration of standardized communication, issue escalation, non punitive response to errors, rounding by all leaders, and culture of continuous improvement. It is …

Transforming A Primary Care Practice Into A Patient Centered Medical Home, Heloise Lim

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition is a process and a road map to improving quality of and access to care. Extant studies have shown that adoption of the PCMH model of care has lowered healthcare expenditure by 15-20% (Nielsen, Langner, Zema, Hacker, & Grundy, 2012). In an effort to reduce healthcare cost in the United States, private and public sectors have embraced the philosophy of PCMH by developing national programs and initiatives for primary care practices to obtain PCMH recognition. A number of payers and health plans have used PCMH recognition as a means to validate high-performing practices and reward …

Educating Nurses On The Use Of The Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool (Bmat) To Create A Culture Of Safety, Kaylin C. Laine

Master's Projects and Capstones

Healthcare workers are more at risk for injury than workers in any other industry, the injury rate in hospitals is almost double that of the entire private sector put together (OSHA, 2013). This high rate of injury has led hospital administrators and policymakers to take a closer look at the job duties and conditions of nurses and other healthcare workers. Almost half of all healthcare worker injuries are the result of overexertion or bodily reaction, injuries that occur as a result of performing patient handling tasks. Many US states have passed laws requiring hospitals to implement Safe Patient Handling and …

Increasing Access To Primary Care Using Np’S: The Framework For An Academic Based Nurse-Managed Center In California, Prabjot (Jodie) Sandhu

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The dynamics of health care delivery and the role of health care providers is a changing canvas in the United States. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sets a goal to increase access to health care. The systems that support the ACA are constantly under scrutiny as failing to provide key answers to provider shortage and health care access issues. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) who are recognized by the ACA as a comprehensive part of this revolution are in a unique place to find opportunities to promote increased access to health and primary care services. While NPs in California …

Preventing Hapus In High-Risk Cardiac Cath Patients Using Foam Dressing Protocol, Charles Jasper

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this project is to implement an evidence-based change in practice resulting safer procedures as evidenced by zero hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs). It is relevant to nursing as it provides an ethical perspective regarding patient safety and contributes to our present understanding of HAPU prevention. In spite of having already decreased the total number of HAPUs by 50% in 2015, the cardiac catheterization lab (CCL) was implicated in 30% of those reported. My objective is to improve patient safety by reducing the number of HAPUs acquired in the CCL to 0% by three months using a prophylactic …

Quality Improvement: An Update For Outpatient Oncology Education, Nicole R. Gee

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project is focused on quality improvement in patient satisfaction with regard to side effect management after oncology patient education. The global aim of this project is to improve oncology-specific patient education through the development of an evidenced-based educational binder to be given to patients in a hospital outpatient infusion center and used as an educational guide for nursing staff. Effective standardized patient education has been seen to improve: satisfaction, quality of life, adherence, self-management, outcomes, and reduce unnecessary emergency room visits (Dalby, 2013; Mann, 2011; Smith et al., 2013). A rise in patient confidence for nausea and vomiting self-care, …

Workplace Violence, Organizational Culture, And Registered Nurses' Incident Reporting Patterns In Acute Hospitals In California, Feodora Jacobsen

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of the reporting patterns of WPV Type II in acute hospital settings. Although some patients are abusive toward nurses, that the abuse is underreported to hospital administrators. Qualitative studies identified common themes for underreporting including fear of being blamed, abuse considered part of the job, and not having sufficient time to fill out a formal report. This study is the first quantitative study to explore the changes in mean scores of organizational-culture factors under two mutually exclusive conditions: registered nurses (RNs) who do not report hospital incidents and RNs who do …

Implementation And Strategies To Address Sensory Regulation Of Students With And Without Disabilities In Two Kindergarten Classrooms, Yvette Rosil Mere-Cook

Doctoral Dissertations

Results from previous research studies suggest that inclusive settings benefit all learners. However, general education teachers often do not have built in supports within the classroom to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Implementing a sensory diet curriculum (SDC) is one instructional practice that addresses needs of students with disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder, and could be applied widely for students without disabilities. Sensory regulation is defined as the body’s physiological process of adapting arousal or alertness levels to cope with sensory events and situational demands that occur throughout the day. The purpose of this study was to …