Discrepancies in beliefs of the ward and medical emergency team (MET) nurses regarding patients for whom MET is activated

International Conference on Nursing & Emergency Medicine

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Imran Khalid

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Background: We conducted this study to evaluate the perception of the nurses and their insight regarding patients for whom Medical Emergency Team (MET) is activated, as there is limited data in this regard. Methods: We conducted a survey among the ward and MET critical care nurses in our hospital. The survey was optional and anonymous. The nurses that did not return the completed survey were excluded. Analysis was done using SPSS software. Results: The questionnaire was given randomly to 164 ward nurses (105 responders) and 51 MET nurses (47 responders) with a total response rate of 71%. The ?table? below shows the questions with correct answers (based on our prior published data from our MET database) and the percentage of accurate responses from the nurses. The overall correct percentage of answers for both the groups was low. The ward nurses incorrectly believed that MET calls resulted in patients being left on the wards and it was not safe to initiate non-invasive ventilation on the wards. On the contrary, MET nurses underestimated the severity of the illness of the MET patients and falsely believed that patients stabilized by them on the wards would remain stable after they signed off. Conclusion: The ward nurses and MET nurses have varied perceptions regarding patients for whom MET is activated. Our results show the apprehension of the ward nurses towards these sick patients and underestimation of the severity of illness by the MET nurses. Future studies should focus on education and improvement strategies.

Biography :

Imran Khalid is a Staff Physician at John D Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit, USA and a Consultant Intensivist at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Jeddah. He is quadruple boarded by American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep. He is interested in clinical research and has published more than 20 papers in peer reviewed journals and numerous abstracts. He also serves on the editorial boards of two peer reviewed journals.