Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Development Of A Fall Prevention Bundle With Evidence-Based Tools For Hospitalized Adults, Kelly A. Tirone

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem

One million hospitalized people fall annually in the United States, and up to a third are preventable.

Context

Data from an acute care hospital show one medical-surgical unit reported eight patient falls in 2021, two causing major harm that reached sentinel event criteria.

Interventions

A Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) leveraged the unique CNL skill set and characteristics of Human-Centered Leadership to engage in horizontal leadership, injury prevention, and team coordination through authentic human connection. The team leveraged documentation for improved fall risk communication. Unavoidable disruptions hindered other planned interventions.

Measures

Outcome measures observe for total fall count and the …

Reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections In The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Maria Smith

Dissertations

Problem: CAUTIs (catheter-associated urinary tract infections) are a common hospital-acquired condition (HAC) that increase length of hospital stays, hospital costs, and risk for patient mortality. CAUTI rates in a PICU increased in 2021 from the year 2020. A rapid cycle PDSA revealed nurses were not using soap and water for foley catheter care, which is the recommended cleanser by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Methods: An observational descriptive design was used to evaluate foley catheter cleaning and CAUTI rates. PICU nurses completed behavior surveys regarding foley catheter cleaning practices. An education intervention occurred when nurses answered anything …

Multimodal Approach To Chronic Pain Management And Prevention Of Opioid Use Disorder, Hannah Elston

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background. Chronic pain (CP) is a major public health problem that affects one-third of the population and can interfere with the activities of daily life and cause decreased quality of life. Patients with CP have been increasingly prescribed opioids, contributing to the rise in the opioid epidemic. Due to the long-term nature of CP, the use of opioids as the sole treatment for CP can cause tolerance and increased dosages overtime which can lead to addiction and potentially overdose. Therefore, CP treatment should include multimodal approaches to treatment to prevent opioid misuse, opioid use disorder (OUD), and overdose. Multimodal treatments …

Implementation Of An Evidence-Based Bundle To Reduce Hospital Acquired Pressure Injury Harm Rates In The Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Project, Jessica Tripp

DNP Scholarly Projects

A pressure injury (PI) is a condition in which prolonged pressure or shear causes localized damage to the soft tissue and skin and is usually over a bony prominence (National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP), 2016). PIs can increase morbidity and mortality, increase length of stay, increase infection rates, increase healthcare costs and decrease quality of life (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), n.d.; Coyer et al., 2017). PIs are largely preventable yet continue to occur, despite the growing number of high-quality research articles that focus on this problem. Quality improvement initiatives are an effective way to translate evidence-based …

Preventing Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections In An Adult Intensive Care Unit, Monica Shaw

Master's Projects and Capstones

Central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) are considered preventable healthcare acquired infections, and are associated with significantly increased morbidity, mortality, and length of hospital stay. The CLABSI rate in an inpatient unit is a meaningful metric in relation to the safety and quality of care in that microsystem. This quality improvement project examines the efficacy of a CLABSI prevention bundle in reducing CLABSI events and improving adherence to central line care policy within a medical surgical adult intensive care unit. The target areas the bundle aimed to improve were unit processes, awareness of CLABSI and central line policies, and …

It’S Their Lifeline: Preventing Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection In An Adult Intensive Care Unit, Jacenda Lee Rangel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem description: Central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) is one of the deadliest types of hospital acquired infection and blood stream infection, raising patient mortality by 12-25% and accounting for 28,000 deaths annually in the United States. CLABSI also increases morbidity, length of stay, and costs hospitals an average of $48,000 per case. Effective measures for CLABSI prevention are needed for an adult intensive care unit (ICU) of an urban hospital to decrease the financial burden of CLABSI, improve quality of care, and prevent patient harm.

Setting: The microsystem of focus is a 36-bed high acuity ICU. Patients of …

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Skin-Care Team, Anna Therianos Konstantin

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the United States, pressure injuries (PIs) cost $9.1–$11.6 billion per year and claim more than 60,000 patient lives. The large Northern California hospital where this CNL project was conducted has had an 8.33% incidence of hospital-acquired PIs at or greater than stage two in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Pressure injury prevention was not a high priority for the nursing staff; nurses were unaware of current PI prevention protocols or the PI prevalence in the PICU. The goals are to reduce PIs by 20% in 3 months, increase PI nursing education, and improve patient outcomes. Nursing skin-care rounds …

The Effect Of Education On Healthcare Personnel's Knowledge Of Lymphedema Detection And Prevention, Dolly Wilson

Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects

Secondary lymphedema (SLE) is a serious problem for many of the 2.6 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. It is estimated that 28 - 38% of breast cancer survivors develop lymphedema. The five-year incidence ranges from 43% to 94% (Armer, 2010). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an education program on healthcare personnel's knowledge of the risk of and preventive measures for upper limb lymphedema in breast cancer patients. A sample of healthcare personnel (N = 32) included both trained healthcare personnel and ancillary staff who are employed in a single oncology center …