Congress Abstracts 2006

116

RESPIRATORY CARE FOR ONCOLOGY NURSES: AN ILLUSTRATED EDUCATION MODEL. Heather Sellers, RN, BSN, Kerry Harwood, RN, MSN, Sherry Whitfield, RRT, RCP, and Joey Misuraca, RN, Duke Hospital, Durham, NC.

Oncology nursing care often involves equipment and supplies that may be unfamiliar to novice nurses or those new to the unit. The Institute for Health Policy has identified the use of equipment and supplies as an important domain to evaluate from a patient safety perspective. Standardized practices can prevent errors that compromise patient safety. Easily accessible, illustrated instructions for utilization of equipment can effectively standardize nursing practice. The presentation will demonstrate this nursing education model via a respiratory care equipment exemplar.

On a medical oncology unit at this NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, 35% of nursing staff have been on the unit for less than 2 years and 20% for less than one year. Excluding nebulized and inhalation therapies that are solely administered by respiratory therapists, a total of ten respiratory set-ups are currently in use. Approximately 978 patients required oxygen or humidified air therapy during inpatient admissions to these units in 2005. While respiratory therapy is often administered by respiratory therapists, the RN is responsible for initiating such therapy in response to new physician orders and respiratory emergencies. Unit staff have perceived respiratory care set-up as time-consuming, with less experienced staff verbalizing concerns related to the potential for improper set-up and administration.

Pictorial instructions for various respiratory care set-ups were created, beginning with images of required equipment and supplies and ending with a photographic record of the completed set-up. These instructions were made available in both print and online manuals.

Outcomes are being evaluated using a nursing survey. The survey includes questions concerning resource utilization, satisfaction with educational content, approval of format(s), perceived self-efficacy in respiratory care set-up utilization, and demographics.

Oncology nursing increasingly relies upon a variety of equipment and supplies to meet complex patient needs. Novice and experienced nurses require continuing educational resources to develop and maintain competency with equipment and supplies. Pictorial education can be an efficient resource for such skills training. Evaluation of this teaching method will determine how effectively this strategy can be applied to other equipment and supply educational needs within oncology nursing.