We Get by with a Little Help from Our Fellow Educators…How We Survived a Supply Shortage and Two Rollouts

• Published in: Journal of perianesthesia nursing 2023-08, Vol.38 (4), p.e17-e17
• Main Authors: Mascetta, Team Leaders: Alena, Svetlov, Olena, Leaders, Abigail, Murakami, Team Members: Chrisse, DeSilva, Rusela, Meadows, Michelle, Gray, Kescia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1089-9472; 1532-8473
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jopan.2023.06.085

Fall 2021, a hospital wide initiative was to stop using the Alaris pumps for all peripheral/paravertebral nerve catheter infusions and start using the CADD-Solis pumps due to patient safety. Upon the impending rollout date, there was a CADD-Solis tubing shortage and all hospital staff had to be oriented to use the yellow Alaris tubing for all peripheral/paravertebral and epidural catheters. Eight months later, with the tubing shortage over, the original project was rolled out using the CADD-Solis pumps with the added education of implementing the peripheral and paravertebral nerve catheter infusions. How to keep our patients and staff safe during a supply shortage and two rollouts. • For the initial project, there were weekly meetings with the Medical-Surgical (MS) and Critical Care (CC) nursing educators • A policy was created, order sets and staff education reviewed • January 2022 with the supply shortage, the MS and CC educators developed hospital wide education using a tip sheet • The Perianesthesia Care Unit (PACU) educators trained close to two hundred nurses in our department • A charge nurse checklist was developed, and a patient tracker was used to keep track of all patients in the hospital that had a catheter with a continuous infusion. Tip sheets were emailed and placed in all units • September 2022, for the new rollout the same process was used to educate the staff and keep patients safe Frequent rounding, emails, in-services, training the charge nurses and unit champions, helped the transition between the two roll outs. When there was a question about how to set up the pump or order clarification, we were notified to help provide more in-services to the staff or clarify order sets with Anesthesia. By collaborating with all our fellow educators and keeping an open line of communication, we kept all our patients safe from harm with both rollouts.