Introducing Nurse-Led Patient Education Visits: Empowering Patients and Elevating Nursing Practice.

BACKGROUND: The literature includes multiple descriptions of successful nurse-led interventions, but the effects of nurse-led education on nurse and patient satisfaction in an executive health program are unknown. LOCAL PROBLEM: Nursing staff desire to practice more fully within their scope of licensure. Increased practice demands raised questions about whether nurse-led education would improve staff and patient satisfaction. METHODS/INTERVENTIONS: A structured quality improvement process was used to design a nurse-led patient education program. Pilot measures included 5-point Likert scale patient and staff satisfaction surveys. Nurse burnout was also measured before and after the pilot. RESULTS: Patient satisfaction was high; 96% reported favorable satisfaction during the pilot, with sustained results over the following 3 years. Nurses' sense of achievement improved by 12 percentage points, and perception of making good use of skills and abilities increased by 39 percentage points. CONCLUSIONS: A nurse-led patient education intervention contributed to improved staff satisfaction while sustaining a positive patient experience.

Perioperative Cardiovascular Medication Management in Noncardiac Surgery: Common Questions.

Several medications have been used perioperatively in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery in an attempt to improve outcomes. Antiplatelet therapy for primary prevention of cardiovascular events should generally be discontinued seven to 10 days before surgery to avoid increasing the risk of bleeding, unless the risk of a major adverse cardiac event exceeds the risk of bleeding. Antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention should be continued perioperatively, except before procedures with very high bleeding risk, such as intracranial procedures. Antiplatelet drugs should be continued and surgery delayed, if possible, for at least 14 days after percutaneous coronary intervention without stent placement, 30 days after percutaneous coronary intervention with bare-metal stent placement, and six to 12 months after percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stent placement. Perioperative beta blockers are recommended for patients already receiving these agents, and it is reasonable to consider starting therapy in patients with known or strongly suspected coronary artery disease or who are at high risk of perioperative cardiac events and are undergoing procedures with a high risk of cardiovascular complications. Long-term statin therapy should be continued perioperatively or started in patients with clinical indications who are not already receiving statins. Clonidine should not be started perioperatively, but long-term clonidine regimens may be continued. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers generally can be continued perioperatively if patients are hemodynamically stable and have good renal function and normal electrolyte levels.

Preoperative Cardiac Risk Assessment.

Major adverse cardiac events are common causes of perioperative mortality and major morbidity. Preventing these complications requires thorough preoperative risk assessment and postoperative monitoring of at-risk patients. Major guidelines recommend assessment based on a validated risk calculator that incorporates patient- and procedure-specific factors. American and European guidelines define when stress testing is needed on the basis of functional capacity assessment. Favoring cost-effectiveness, Canadian guidelines instead recommend obtaining brain natriuretic peptide or N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide levels to guide postoperative screening for myocardial injury or infarction. When conditions such as acute coronary syndrome, severe pulmonary hypertension, and decompensated heart failure are identified, nonemergent surgery should be postponed until the condition is appropriately managed. There is an evolving role of biomarkers and myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery to enhance risk stratification, but the effect of interventions guided by these strategies is unclear.

Outcome of primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment surgery in a tertiary referral centre in Northern Ireland - A regional study.

PURPOSE: To report the primary and final success, functional outcome and complication rates of patients with primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) who underwent retinal detachment surgery in a tertiary referral centre in Northern Ireland. VENUE: Vitreoretinal service, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland. METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of all patients who underwent primary RRD repair between 1st of January 2013 and 31st of December 2013. Charts were reviewed. Patients' demographics, overall primary and final success, functional outcome, complication rates were identified and recorded. Subgroup analysis according to lens status and foveal attachment was also performed. RESULTS: A total of 212 cases of primary RRD were included. Mean age at time of surgery was 56.6 years (range 9-90 years); 175(82.5%) had pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), 27 (12.5%), scleral buckle (SB) repair and 10 (5%) pneumatic retinopexy (PR). Overall primary and final success rate were 86% and 95.6% respectively. Overall mean visual acuity improved from 1.1 to 0.4 LogMAR postoperatively after a mean follow-up of 9 months. There was no significant difference in the primary success rate in relation to the baseline lens status (χ2 = 3.4, P = 0.2) and to the baseline macular status (χ2 = 0.6, P = 0.7). Presence of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) negatively affected the primary success rate (χ2=7.2, P = 0.03). Poor prognostic factors for success were PVR at presentation, inferior breaks and increasing number of detached quadrants. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates a success rate comparable with other centres with a low rate of final failure. Despite sub-specialism and the great advances in VR surgery, the biology of RRD dictates a failure rate. New therapies may improve results in the future.