Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital’s Department of Nursing kicked off Nurses Week with a Research and Evidence-Based Practice Showcase on Monday, May 2. Nurses received one continuing education credit for attending the presentations.
Research Study Presentation: A Comparison of Oral Temperature with Temporal Artery Temperature in the Medical Surgical Patient Population
Amalia (Rose) Gonzales, BSN, RN, OCN, Main 4 East clinical nurse and Brigit Mathew, BSN, RN, CMSRN, Main 6 West clinical nurse presented their research study, “A Comparison of Oral Temperature with Temporal Artery Temperature in the Medical Surgical Patient Population”. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of two temporal artery temperature measurement approaches is comparable to oral temperature measurement in acute care medical-surgical patients in a community hospital. Other research participants included Main 4 East clinical nurses Andrea Dalcour-Cotton, BSN, RN, OCN; Imelda Menor, BSN, RN; Gemma Patterson, BSN, RN and Chung-Win (Joy) Yuan Fey, BSN, RN, ONC. Main 6 West clinical nurse research participants included Stella Tomy, BSN, RN, CVRN and Lijo Saji, BSN, RN, CMSRN. Tricia Lewis, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, CNML, Nursing Director for ICU, CTM, Clinical Education, Inpatient Wound Care and Inpatient Diabetes Education was the principle investigator for this research study. Study implications found that temporal artery temperatures are within the clinically accepted range of + 0.5°C 75 % of the time when compared to oral temperatures. There is some discrepancy between the approaches when the patient has an elevated temperature. Study recommendations based on study results include: for a medical-surgical patient with a normal temperature, obtaining the temperature using the temporal approach is clinically acceptable, yet in the febrile patient the temperature should be verified by the standard oral temperature approach.
Research Study Presentation: Comparing Temporal Artery Temperature to Core or Oral Temperature Measurement in Intensive Care Unit Patients
Luz Malit, MSN, RN, CCRN, ICU clinical nurse presented the ICU research study comparing temporal artery temperatures to core and oral temperature in ICU patients.
Quality Improvement Presentation: The Back in Action Program
Sade Kelly, BSN, RN, Main 6 East clinical nurse presented “The Back in Action Program” quality improvement project. Chris Rappel, MSN, RN, ONC, Joint Program Coordinator; Jennifer Pazderny, MSN, RN , CNL; Teresa Gonzales, BSN, RN and Shery Skariah, BSN, RN also participated in this project. The purpose of this project was to implement an interprofessional education program to increase patients’ knowledge of their surgery and expectations of care that leads to reduced complications and increased confidence in self-care. This also decreases patient length of stay, reduces readmission rates and improves patient satisfaction. Nurses from PACU, Main 6 East, a surgeon, pharmacy, physical therapy, anesthesia and case management contributed to this quality improvement project through preoperative classes, risk assessment tools and discharge phone calls based upon readmission risks and need for additional education. The Back in Action education program was implemented during September, 2015. As of March 2016, 39 patients have attended the program. The length of stay has decreased from 3.74 days to 2.8 days, and the readmission rate went from 8% to 0% year-to-date.
Evidence-Based Practice Presentation: Aromatherapy, A Non-Pharmacological Intervention for Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit
Ronald Malit, BSN, RN, CPAN, CAPA and Paschale Dorismond-Parks, BSN, RN, CPAN, PACU clinical nurses presented their evidence-based practice project on the use of aromatherapy to treat postoperative nausea and vomiting. Using the IOWA Model of Evidence-Based Practice, they formed their clinical question, “For patients in the initial post-operative period, does the use of aromatherapy as an alternative treatment prevent or treat postoperative nausea and vomiting?” Ron and Paschale developed an algorithm for aromatherapy administration and implemented their project September – October 2015. A total of 43 patients were included in the project. The results showed that aromatherapy was more effective in treating mild nausea than moderate nausea and was not able to totally relieve severe nausea. The use of aromatherapy to treat postoperative nausea and vomiting has led to a reduction in the use of antiemetic medications, such as Phenergan and Zofran.