Maintaining Perioperative Normothermia: Sustaining an Evidence-Based Practice Improvement Project

Abstract Unintentional perioperative hypothermia has been shown to cause serious patient complications and, thus, to increase health care costs. In 2009, an evidence-based practice improvement project produced a significant decrease in unintentional perioperative hypothermia in colorectal surgical p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:AORN journal 2016-02, Vol.103 (2), p.213.e1-213.e13
Main Authors: Levin, Rona F., Wright, Fay, Pecoraro, Kathleen, Kopec, Wendy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anesthesia & Perioperative Care
Body Temperature Regulation
Evidence-Based Nursing
evidence-based practice
Health care expenditures
Humans
Hypothermia
normothermia
Nursing
Patients
Perianesthesia
quality improvement
Surgery
Sustainability
sustainability project
unintentional hypothermia
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Unintentional perioperative hypothermia has been shown to cause serious patient complications and, thus, to increase health care costs. In 2009, an evidence-based practice improvement project produced a significant decrease in unintentional perioperative hypothermia in colorectal surgical patients through monitoring of OR ambient room temperature. Project leaders engaged all interdisciplinary stakeholders in the original project, which facilitated the sustainability of the intervention method. An important aspect of sustainability is ongoing monitoring and evaluation of a new intervention method. Therefore, continued evaluation of outcomes of the protocol developed in 2009 was scheduled at specific time points after the initial small test of change with colorectal patients. This article focuses on how attention to sustainability factors during implementation of an improvement project led to the sustainability of a protocol for monitoring OR ambient room temperature with all types of surgical patients five years after the initial project.
ISSN:0001-2092
1878-0369
DOI:10.1016/j.aorn.2015.12.020