Factors that influence nurses assessment of patient acuity and response to acute deterioration

48^th World Congress on Advanced Nursing Research

June 14-15, 2018 | Dublin, Ireland

Mark Dalton

Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals University, UK

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Background: Nurses play a crucial role in the early recognition and management of the deteriorating patient, (Wheatley 2006, Endacott et al 2007, Odell et al 2009, Cooper 2010, Liaw et al 2011). They are responsible for the care they provide to their patients. A part of this care is the monitoring of the patient�s vital signs such as blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, temperature, which are fundamental in the surveillance of health deterioration. Methods: The aim of this study is to discover what are the factors impacting on the ward nurses� ability to recognise and respond to acute patient deterioration. Design: A Generic Qualitative approach. Data Collection: Ten nurses currently working within an acute NHS Trust were interviewed using a semi structured approach. The nurses were equally represented from in patient medical and surgical wards. Results: There were several themes that have been identified; the main themes are as follows: (1) Intuition, (2) Knowing the patient and (3) Interpretation of the NEWS system (National Early Warning Score). It was recognised the nurses� tendered to lean towards their intuitive appraisal of the situation and noticeably relied upon the numerical escalation of the NEWS system to identify the deteriorating patient; instead of their own clinical judgement. Interestingly, the nurses found no difficulty in escalating the patients care to the medical staff when the patient presented with a high NEWS score. The difficulty however, arose when the NEWS score was low which they found incredibly challenging to authenticate their findings. Conclusion: This study has identified several confounding factors that impacts on the ward nurses� ability to recognise and respond to acute patient deterioration. The information offered by the nurses provides a crucial step forward to identifying strategies to develop further training.

Biography :

Mark Dalton is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals University NHS Trust, UK.
Email:mark.dalton@sky.com