Routine Neurological Assessments by Nurses in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Brain Injuries
/ diagnosis
Child
Child, Preschool
Critical Care Nursing
/ methods
Diagnostic Tests, Routine
Documentation
/ methods
Female
Humans
Infant
Intensive Care Units, Pediatric
/ organization & administration
Male
Monitoring, Physiologic
/ nursing
Neurologic Examination
/ nursing
Nursing Assessment
/ standards
Quality Improvement
Journal
Critical care nurse
ISSN: 1940-8250
Titre abrégé: Crit Care Nurse
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8207799
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Jun 2019
Jun 2019
Historique:
entrez:
3
6
2019
pubmed:
4
6
2019
medline:
10
1
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Brain injury with changes in clinical neurological signs and symptoms can develop while children are undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit. Critical care nurses routinely screen for neurological decline by using serial bedside neurological assessments. However, assessment components, frequency, and communication thresholds are not standardized. To standardize neurological assessment procedures used by nurses, improve compliance with physicians' ordering and nurses' documentation of neurological assessments, and explore the frequency with which changes from preillness neurological status and previous assessments can be detected by using the assessment tool developed. A quality improvement intervention was implemented during a 1-year period in a 55-bed pediatric intensive care unit with 274 nurses. Procedures for neurological assessment by nurses were standardized, a system for physicians to order neurological assessments by nurses at a frequency based on the patient's risk for brain injury was developed and implemented, and a system to compare patients' current neurological status with their preillness neurological status was developed and implemented. Process metrics that focused on compliance of ordering and documenting the standardized neurological assessments indicated improvement and sustained compliance greater than 80%. Exploratory analyses indicated that 29% of patients had an episode of neurological decline and that these episodes were more common in patients with developmental disabilities than in patients without such disabilities. Compliance with physicians' ordering and nurses' documentation of standardized neurological assessments significantly increased and had excellent sustainability. Further work is needed to determine the sensitivity of standardized nurses' neurological assessment tools for clinically meaningful neurological decline.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Brain injury with changes in clinical neurological signs and symptoms can develop while children are undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit. Critical care nurses routinely screen for neurological decline by using serial bedside neurological assessments. However, assessment components, frequency, and communication thresholds are not standardized.
OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVE
To standardize neurological assessment procedures used by nurses, improve compliance with physicians' ordering and nurses' documentation of neurological assessments, and explore the frequency with which changes from preillness neurological status and previous assessments can be detected by using the assessment tool developed.
METHODS
METHODS
A quality improvement intervention was implemented during a 1-year period in a 55-bed pediatric intensive care unit with 274 nurses. Procedures for neurological assessment by nurses were standardized, a system for physicians to order neurological assessments by nurses at a frequency based on the patient's risk for brain injury was developed and implemented, and a system to compare patients' current neurological status with their preillness neurological status was developed and implemented.
RESULTS
RESULTS
Process metrics that focused on compliance of ordering and documenting the standardized neurological assessments indicated improvement and sustained compliance greater than 80%. Exploratory analyses indicated that 29% of patients had an episode of neurological decline and that these episodes were more common in patients with developmental disabilities than in patients without such disabilities.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
Compliance with physicians' ordering and nurses' documentation of standardized neurological assessments significantly increased and had excellent sustainability. Further work is needed to determine the sensitivity of standardized nurses' neurological assessment tools for clinically meaningful neurological decline.
Identifiants
pubmed: 31154328
pii: 39/3/20
doi: 10.4037/ccn2019198
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
20-32Informations de copyright
©2019 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.