Analysis of Nursing Interventions in Trauma-Bay at the Regional Trauma Center for Patients with Severe Thoracic Injuries

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This retrospective study aimed to investigate nursing interventions in patients with severe thoracic injury in trauma bay of a regional trauma center. @*Methods@#Of the 1,780 patients admitted to the trauma bay of a regional trauma center in a university hospital in the Gyeonggi Province between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, 120 adult patients with severe thoracic injury who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Participants’ clinical characteristics and nursing interventions were collected from electronic medical records after receiving ethical approval. Nursing interventions were classified using the terminology in the Nursing Intervention Classification. @*Results@#The mean age of participants was 52.25 years and 72.5% of participants were male. The main areas of thoracic injury included lung parenchyma and pleura (95.8%). The mean Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) for thoracic injury was 3.13 and the mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 17.81. Fluid resuscitation, invasive hemodynamic monitoring, chest tube care, respiratory monitoring, artificial airway management, gastrointestinal tube care, mechanical ventilation management airway insertion and stabilization, blood product administration, allergy management, and surgical preparation were performed significantly more frequently in thoracic injury patients with unstable vital signs or a higher AIS score. @*Conclusion@#This study is significant as it investigated the types of nursing interventions given to patients with severe thoracic injury in the trauma bay. These results would contribute to developing more detailed educational materials for initial nursing interventions in trauma bay.