Growing Novice Nurses to Perianesthesia Care: Formation of a Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Fellowship.

PURPOSE: To provide a proof of concept of a structured, replicable perianesthesia fellowship program for nurses with less than 2 years of experience and new graduate nurses. DESIGN: An immersive learning experience was implemented as a pilot quality improvement project using the Plan-Do-Study-Act method. METHODS: This 24-week fellowship program used blended learning approaches and the Tiered Skill Acquisition Model (TSAM) to develop foundational Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) skills. Nurse Fellows (4) acquired knowledge in stages, with each week in the program reinforcing and building upon the prior week's learnings. Settings included an initial 10 weeks in the ambulatory PACU, then the acute care PACU (weeks 11-20), and the final 4 weeks were spent in the primary unit where the Fellow would transition into a PACU Staff RN. Through each phase, the Professional Practice Department's Clinical Mentor Nurse promoted preceptor development, facilitated learning experiences and provided bimonthly evaluations of the Nurse Fellow's progress via our institution's clinical rounding tool. We used the Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence Associated with Clinical Decision Making (NASC-CDM) scale to assess novice nurses' anxiety and self-confidence associated with making clinical decisions at designated intervals. FINDINGS: All Nurse Fellows completed the program and remained in PACU positions 2 years post-fellowship. They reported discomfort and increased stress transitioning to different PACUs; however, they later indicated reduced anxiety and greater confidence in clinical decision-making, as noted in subsequent evaluations of the NASC-CDM scale. CONCLUSIONS: Perianesthesia fellowship programs incorporating blended learning, skill reinforcement, and formal mentoring on a primary PACU unit build confidence and competence in the novice nurse, making this once-excluded population of nurses a viable option for recruitment directly into the PACU environment.

A Nurse-Led Implementation Science Specialist Program.

ABSTRACT: A well-known challenge in health care is integrating evidence into practice. Implementation science (IS) is a growing field that promotes the sustainable application of evidence-based practice (EBP) to clinical care. Health care organizations have an opportunity to support sustainable change by creating robust IS infrastructures that engage nurses in the clinical environment. Integrating IS into a nursing shared governance model is an ideal vehicle to empower direct care nurses to sustain EBP. Importantly, an IS infrastructure may also promote nurse retention and increase interdisciplinary collaboration. This article, the first in a series on applying IS, describes how a multisite health care organization developed a systemwide nurse-led IS Specialist program within a shared governance model.

Thoracic enhanced recovery with ambulation after surgery: a 6-year experience.

OBJECTIVES: Our institution implemented a protocol known as thoracic enhanced recovery with ambulation after surgery (T-ERAS) in thoracic operations. The objective was early ambulation starting in the postoperative ambulatory care unit. METHODS: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy patients are placed on a chair in the preoperative area and then walked to the operating room. Postoperatively, patients are placed on a chair as soon as possible. Our target ambulation goal was 250 feet within 1 h of extubation. Patients then walk to their hospital room. T-ERAS adoption and outcomes were compared to a pre-T-ERAS period, in addition to the comparing early and late T-ERAS cohorts. RESULTS: Over 6 years, 304 patients on T-ERAS underwent a planned video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy. Median age was 67 years (range 41-87 years). The target goal was achieved in 187 of 304 (61.5%) patients and 277 of 304 (91.1%) patients ambulated 250 feet at any time in the postoperative ambulatory care unit. The T-ERAS period had a median length of stay of 1 day vs 2 days in the pre-T-ERAS period (P < 0.001). There were low rates of pneumonia (2/304, 0.7%), atrial fibrillation (12/304, 4.0%) and no postoperative mortalities for T-ERAS. The target goal was achieved at a greater rate in the late (92/132, 72.0%) versus early (28/75, 37%) T-ERAS cohort. The mean time to ambulation was reduced in the late cohort (46-81 min). CONCLUSIONS: Early postoperative ambulation was feasible and considered key in achieving low morbidity after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy. Adoption of T-ERAS improved over time. Further studies will help define adoptability at other sites and validate impact on improving outcomes.

Interrater Reliability of Hospital Readmission Evaluations for Surgical Patients.

Value-based purchasing initiatives have helped shift attention to the accuracy of hospital readmission information at the most clinically detailed level. The purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability (IRR) of surgical experts in assessing surgical inpatient readmissions for categorical causes, relation to index procedure, and potential preventability. Cases were selected from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program local database. Of 1840 cases, 156 patients (8.5%) were readmitted within 30 days of the procedure. Surgical site infection was the most common readmission cause (32%), followed by obstruction or ileus (17%). IRR was moderate for readmission cause (60% agreement, κ = 0.51), substantial for readmission in relation to surgical procedure (92%, κ = 0.70), and lowest for potential preventability of readmissions (57%, κ = 0.18). Results suggest that readmission cause and relation to surgical procedure can be determined with moderate to high degree of IRR, while preventability of readmissions may require stricter definitions to improve IRR.

Top 10 patient safety issues: what more can we do?

A 2012 survey of AORN members identified the top 10 safety issues reported by perioperative nurses. These nurses are in a unique position to understand the errors and the unreported near misses that occur in the OR. For each of the top-rated safety issues that RNs identified, we discuss the evidence of risk and contributing factors and make targeted recommendations for further improvement in perioperative safety with the goal of mitigating risk and improving patient outcomes.

Effectiveness of 2% CHG cloth bathing for reducing surgical site infections.

We conducted a prospective cohort study on the effectiveness of preoperative bathing with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) cloths for reducing surgical site infections. We hypothesized that use of CHG cloths as an adjunct to surgical prep would significantly reduce the endogenous flora of surgical patients and therefore reduce surgical site infections. Data from a control group of patients who had undergone general, vascular, and orthopedic surgery were used for comparison. Results indicated an overall reduction of infection in the group that received a 2% CHG bath before surgery. There also was a possible reduction in postoperative organ space infection, although the sample numbers were extremely small. To reduce surgical site infections, we suggest a nursing protocol of preoperative bathing with a 2% CHG cloth for patients undergoing general and vascular surgery, and an additional trial to investigate the use of preoperative CHG cloth baths in all surgical patient populations.

Priority patient safety issues identified by perioperative nurses.

Much of the work done by perioperative nurses focuses on patient safety. Perioperative nurses are aware that unreported near misses occur every day, and they use that knowledge to prioritize activities to protect the patient. The purpose of this study was to identify the highest priority patient safety issues reported by perioperative RNs. We sent a link to an anonymous electronic survey to all AORN members who had e-mail addresses in AORN's member database. The survey asked respondents to identify top perioperative patient safety issues. We received 3,137 usable responses and identified the 10 highest priority safety issues, including wrong site/procedure/patient surgery, retained surgical items, medication errors, failures in instrument reprocessing, pressure injuries, specimen management errors, surgical fires, perioperative hypothermia, burns from energy devices, and difficult intubation/airway emergencies. Differences were found among practice settings. The information from this study can be used to inform the development of educational programs and the allocation of resources to enhance safe perioperative patient care.

A pragmatic and successful approach to treating nonsmall-cell lung carcinoma.

Lung cancer is the single leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women combined. Nonsmall-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), which results largely from smoking tobacco, accounts for 87% of all lung cancer cases. Methods of patient selection, preoperative and intraoperative care, and postoperative outcomes for patients with NSCLC who were treated from 1991 through 2003 at Inova Fairfax Hospital are discussed. All patients were treated with surgery, some selectively and progressively with a combination of preoperative neoadjuvant therapy, to try to downstage the disease to make complete resection feasible. Outcomes from this data collection period match or exceed the best results for treatment of late-stage (ie, III and IV) disease reported anywhere to date.