Impact of a blended curriculum on nursing handover quality: a quality improvement project.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: The negative consequences of inadequate nursing handovers on patient safety are widely acknowledged, both within the literature as in practice. Evidence regarding strategies to improve nursing handover is, however, lacking. This study investigates the effect of a tailored, blended curriculum on nurses' perception of handover quality. METHODS: We used a pre-test/post-test design within four units of a Belgian general hospital. Our educational intervention consisted of an e-learning module on professional communication and a face-to-face session on the use of a structured method for handovers. All nurses completed this blended curriculum (n=87). We used the Handover Evaluation Scale (HES) to evaluate nurses' perception of handover quality before and after the intervention. The HES was answered by 87.4% of the nurses (n=76 of 87) before and 50.6% (n=44 of 87) after the intervention. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the validity of the HES. RESULTS: The original factor structure did not fit with our data. We identified a new HES structure with acceptable or good fit indices. The overall internal consistency of our HES structure was considered adequate. Perception of nurses on Relevance of information showed a significant improvement (M=53.19±4.33 vs M=61.03±6.01; p=0.04). Nurses also felt that the timely provision of patient information improved significantly (M=4.50±0.34 vs M=5.16±0.40; p=0.01). CONCLUSION: The applied intervention resulted in an improved awareness on the importance of Relevance of information during handovers. After our intervention, the nurses' perception of the HES item 'Patient information is provided in a timely manner' also improved significantly. We are aware that the educational intervention is only the first step to achieve the long-term implementation of a culture of professional communication based on mutual support.

Validation of a Score for the Detection of Subjects with High Risk for Severe High-Altitude Illness.

PURPOSE: A decision tree based on a clinicophysiological score (severe high-altitude illness (SHAI) score) has been developed to detect subjects susceptible to SHAI. We aimed to validate this decision tree, to rationalize the prescription of acetazolamide (ACZ), and to specify the rule for a progressive acclimatization. METHODS: Data were obtained from 641 subjects in 15 European medical centers before and during a sojourn at high altitude. Depending on the value of the SHAI score, advice was given and ACZ was eventually prescribed. The outcome was the occurrence of SHAI at high altitude as a function of the SHAI score, ACZ prescription, and use and fulfillment of the acclimatization rule. RESULTS: The occurrence of SHAI was 22.6%, similar to what was observed 18 yr before (23.7%), whereas life-threatening forms of SHAI (high-altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema) were less frequent (2.6%-0.8%, P = 0.007). The negative predictive value of the decision tree based was 81%, suggesting that the procedure is efficient to detect subjects who will not suffer from SHAI, therefore limiting the use of ACZ. The maximal daily altitude gain that limits the occurrence of SHAI was established at 400 m. The occurrence of SHAI was reduced from 27% to 12% when the recommendations for ACZ use and 400-m daily altitude gain were respected (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This multicenter study confirmed the interest of the SHAI score in predicting the individual risk for SHAI. The conditions for an optimized acclimatization (400-m rule) were also specified, and we proposed a rational decision tree for the prescription of ACZ, adapted to each individual tolerance to hypoxia.

Prehospital identification of trauma patients with early acute coagulopathy and massive bleeding: results of a prospective non-interventional clinical trial evaluating the Trauma Induced Coagulopathy Clinical Score (TICCS).

INTRODUCTION: Identifying patients who need damage control resuscitation (DCR) early after trauma is pivotal for adequate management of their critical condition. Several trauma-scoring systems have been developed to identify such patients, but most of them are not simple enough to be used in prehospital settings in the early post-traumatic phase. The Trauma Induced Coagulopathy Clinical Score (TICCS) is an easy-to-measure and strictly clinical trauma score developed to meet this medical need. METHODS: TICCS is a 3-item clinical score (range: 0 to 18) based on the assessment of general severity, blood pressure and extent of body injury and calculated by paramedics on-site for patients with severe trauma. This non-interventional prospective study was designed to assess the ability of TICCS to discern patients who need DCR. These patients were patients with early acute coagulopathy of trauma (EACT), haemorrhagic shock, massive transfusion and surgical or endovascular haemostasis during hospitalization. Diagnosis of EACT was assessed by both thromboelastometry and conventional coagulation tests. RESULTS: During an 18-month period, 89 severe trauma patients admitted to the general emergency unit at our hospital were enrolled in the study, but 7 were excluded for protocol violations. Of the 82 remaining patients, 8 needed DCR and 74 did not. With receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, TICCS proved to be a powerful discriminant test (area under the curve = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.92 to 1.0). A cutoff of 10 on the TICCS scale provided the best balance between sensitivity (100%; 95% CI: 53.9 to 100) and specificity (95.9%; 95% CI: 88.2 to 99.2). The positive predictive value was 72.7%, and the negative predictive value was 100.0%. CONCLUSION: TICCS can be easily and rapidly measured by paramedics at the trauma site. In this study of blunt trauma patients, TICCS was able to discriminate between patients with and without need for DCR. TICCS on-site evaluation should allow initiation of optimal care immediately upon hospital admission of patients with severe trauma in need of DCR. However, a larger multicentre prospective study is needed for in-depth validation of TICCS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT02132208 (registered 6 May 2014).

Intra-arrest transnasal evaporative cooling: a randomized, prehospital, multicenter study (PRINCE: Pre-ROSC IntraNasal Cooling Effectiveness).

BACKGROUND: Transnasal evaporative cooling has sufficient heat transfer capacity for effective intra-arrest cooling and improves survival in swine. The aim of this study was to determine the safety, feasibility, and cooling efficacy of prehospital transnasal cooling in humans and to explore its effects on neurologically intact survival to hospital discharge. METHODS AND RESULTS: Witnessed cardiac arrest patients with a treatment interval