Factors influencing ambulance nurses' adherence to a national protocol ambulance care: an implementation study in the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVES: Adherence to prehospital guidelines and protocols is suboptimal. Insight into influencing factors is necessary to improve adherence. The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence ambulance nurses' adherence to a National Protocol Ambulance Care (NPAC). METHODS: A questionnaire was developed using the literature, a questionnaire and expert opinion. Ambulance nurses (n=452) from four geographically spread emergency medical services (EMSs) in the Netherlands were invited to fill out the questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions on influencing factors and self-reported adherence. RESULTS: Questionnaires were returned by 248 (55%) of the ambulance nurses. These ambulance nurses' adherence to the NPAC was 83.4% (95% confidence interval 81.9-85.0). Bivariate correlations showed 23 influencing factors that could be related to the individual professional, organization, protocol characteristics and social context. Multilevel regression analysis showed that 21% of the variation in adherence (R=0.208) was explained by protocol characteristics and social influences. CONCLUSION: Ambulance nurses' self-reported adherence to the NPAC seems high. To improve adherence, protocol characteristics (complexity, the degree of support for diagnosis and treatment, the relationship of the protocol with patient outcomes) and social influences (expectance of colleagues to work with the national protocol) should be addressed.

Empowering nurses to handle the guideline implementation process: identification of implementation competencies.

Employing nurses as opinion leaders to implement guidelines may be a promising implementation activity. Until now, insight into necessary competencies of nurse opinion leaders is lacking. We studied and supported aspiring nurse opinion leaders, using a training program based on social influence and implementation theory. Twenty-one competencies were identified, of which the most important were cooperating, communicating, delegating, giving feedback, networking, and information processing. Understanding and addressing these competencies may support the implementation of evidence-based guidelines.

An exploration of factors influencing ambulance and emergency nurses' protocol adherence in the Netherlands.

INTRODUCTION: Adherence to ambulance and ED protocols is often suboptimal. Insight into factors influencing adherence is a requisite for improvement of adherence. This study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of factors that influence ambulance and emergency nurses' adherence to protocols. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were held with ambulance nurses, emergency nurses, and physicians (N = 20) with medical end responsibility in the Netherlands to explore influencing factors. Content analysis was used to identify influencing factors. RESULTS: The main influencing factors for adherence were individual factors, including individual (clinical) experience, awareness, and the preference of following local protocols instead of national protocols. Organizational or external factors were involvement in protocol development, training and education, control mechanisms for adherence, and physicians' interest. Also of influence were protocol characteristics including integration of the advanced trauma life support approach, being in accordance with daily practice, and the generality of the content. Influencing factors could be a barrier as well as a facilitator for adherence. DISCUSSION: Factors influencing ambulance and emergency nurses' protocol adherence could be assigned to individual, organizational, and external categories, as well as to protocol characteristics. To improve adherence, implementation strategies should be tailored to identified factors. Multifaceted implementation strategies will be needed to improve adherence.

Concurrent incidence of adverse events in hospitals and nursing homes.

PURPOSE: To describe the concurrent incidence of pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections, and falls in hospitals and nursing homes, and the preventive care given. Additionally, the correlation between the occurrence of these adverse events and preventive care was explored. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: A prospective, 3-month, cohort study at 10 hospitals and 10 nursing homes in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: 687 hospital patients and 241 nursing home patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The incidence of three adverse events and preventive care given to patients at risk. During weekly visits, the patients and their files were assessed. Additionally, observations were performed. RESULTS: Seventy-seven hospital patients (11%) and 111 nursing home patients (46%) developed one or more adverse events. The incidence rate for both types of patients, and for the three adverse events combined, was 9% adverse events per patient week. In hospitals, 34% of the patients received adequate pressure ulcer preventive care, while 47% of the patients received adequate urinary tract infection preventive care, and none of the patients received adequate falls preventive care. In nursing homes, 18% of the patients received adequate pressure ulcer preventive care, 42% of the patients received adequate urinary tract infection preventive care, and less than 1% of the patients received adequate falls prevention care. Negative or no correlations were found between the incidence rates for the three adverse events. In nursing homes the incidence of pressure ulcers and preventive care were positively correlated. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high incidence of adverse events in hospitals and nursing homes. Many patients at risk do not receive adequate preventive care.

Adherence to guidelines and protocols in the prehospital and emergency care setting: a systematic review.

A gap between guidelines or protocols and clinical practice often exists, which may result in patients not receiving appropriate care. Therefore, the objectives of this systematic review were (1) to give an overview of professionals' adherence to (inter)national guidelines and protocols in the emergency medical dispatch, prehospital and emergency department (ED) settings, and (2) to explore which factors influencing adherence were described in studies reporting on adherence. PubMed (including MEDLINE), CINAHL, EMBASE and the Cochrane database for systematic reviews were systematically searched. Reference lists of included studies were also searched for eligible studies. Identified articles were screened on title, abstract and year of publication (≥1990) and were included when reporting on adherence in the eligible settings. Following the initial selection, articles were screened full text and included if they concerned adherence to a (inter)national guideline or protocol, and if the time interval between data collection and publication date was <10 years. Finally, articles were assessed on reporting quality. Each step was undertaken by two independent researchers. Thirty-five articles met the criteria, none of these addressed the emergency medical dispatch setting or protocols. Median adherence ranged from 7.8-95% in the prehospital setting, and from 0-98% in the ED setting. In the prehospital setting, recommendations on monitoring came with higher median adherence percentages than treatment recommendations. For both settings, cardiology treatment recommendations came with relatively low median adherence percentages. Eight studies identified patient and organisational factors influencing adherence. The results showed that professionals' adherence to (inter)national prehospital and emergency department guidelines shows a wide variation, while adherence in the emergency medical dispatch setting is not reported. As insight in influencing factors for adherence in the emergency care settings is minimal, future research should identify such factors to allow the development of strategies to improve adherence and thus improve quality of care.

Factors influencing the implementation of the guideline triage in emergency departments: a qualitative study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The objectives are: (1) to identify factors that influence the implementation of the guideline Triage in emergency departments [2004] in emergency departments in the Netherlands, and (2) to develop tailored implementation strategies for implementation of this guideline. BACKGROUND: Guideline dissemination is no guarantee for guideline implementation. In 2004 the guideline Triage in Emergency Departments was disseminated in Dutch hospitals. Guideline revision was scheduled in 2008. Prior to the revision, factors which influenced the implementation of the guideline [2004] were studied to be addressed at the implementation of the revised guideline. METHODS: This is an exploratory study using a qualitative design including: a questionnaire sent to all emergency departments in the Netherlands (n = 108): four focus group interviews, including nurses and ward managers and in-depth interviews with ward managers and doctors. Based on the results, tailored implementation strategies and activities were suggested which target the identified influencing factors. RESULTS: Various factors at individual, social context and organisational level were identified as influencing the implementation of the 2004 version of the guideline, namely: level of knowledge; insight and skills; work preferences; motivation and/or commitment; support; informed doctors; preliminary work and arrangements for implementation; description of tasks and responsibilities; workload and resources. Ward managers, nurses and doctors mentioned similar as well as different factors. Consequently, tailored implementation strategies and activities related to education, maintenance of change, motivation and consensus-building, information, organisation and facilitation were suggested. CONCLUSION: Nurses, ward managers and doctors broadly indicated similar influencing factors, although the importance of these factors differed for the different groups. For nurses, resistance and lack of resources are most important, ward managers mentioned culture and doctors the availability of doctors at the emergency department. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Insight into the barriers for implementation and tailoring implementation strategies to these barriers improves the implementation.

Adherence to the guideline 'Triage in emergency departments': a survey of Dutch emergency departments.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the adherence to the 2004 guideline Triage in emergency departments three years after dissemination in Dutch emergency departments. BACKGROUND: In 2004, a Dutch guideline Triage in emergency departments was developed. Triage is the first step performed by nurses when a patient arrives at an emergency department. It includes the prioritisation of patients to ensure that doctors see patients with the highest medical needs first. Although the national guideline was developed and disseminated in 2004, three years on there was no insight into the level of implementation of the guideline in practice. DESIGN: A cross-sectional descriptive design. METHODS: In February 2007, data were collected from ward managers and triage nurses at all emergency departments in the Netherlands (n = 108), using a questionnaire that was based on the recommendations and performance indicators of the guideline. RESULTS: In total, 79% of all 108 Dutch emergency departments responded. The main findings showed that over 31% of the emergency departments did not use a triage system. Emergency departments using the Manchester Triage System had a mean adherence rate of 61% of the guideline's recommendations and emergency departments using the Emergency System Index adhered to a mean of 65%. CONCLUSION: The guideline Triage in emergency departments was disseminated in 2004, but results from this study indicate that an improvement in adherence to this guideline is required. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Adherence to guidelines is important to standardise practice to ensure that patients receive the appropriate treatment and to improve quality of care.

[Guideline 'Pain management for trauma patients in the chain of emergency care']. / Richtlijn 'Pijnbehandeling bij traumapatiënten in de spoedzorgketen'.

Pain management for trauma patients is a neglected aspect in the chain of emergency care in general practices, ambulance services, mobile trauma teams and in hospital emergency departments. The aim of the guideline 'Pain management for trauma patients in the chain of emergency care' is to provide pain management recommendations for trauma patients in the chain of emergency care and thereby improve the assistance that patients receive. Paracetamol is the treatment of choice, if necessary with additional use of NSAIDs or opioids; NSAIDs can be administered in the absence of contra-indications, but should be avoided in cases where the patient history is unknown; fentanyl and morphine can be given for severe pain during emergency care, esketamine can be considered in patients with severe pain and hypovolemia. The guideline contains 3 algorithms for measuring pain and for its pharmacological treatment in the chain of emergency care. Implementation of the algorithms requires an alternative working procedure; pain scores must be documented, and general practitioners and nursing staff may administer opioids intravenously.

The relevance of team characteristics and team directed strategies in the implementation of nursing innovations: a literature review.

BACKGROUND: Implementation of innovations is a complex and intensive procedure in which different strategies can be successful. In nursing, strategies often focus on intrinsic motivation, competencies and attitudes of individual nurses while ignoring the social context. Since nurses often work in teams, identifying relevant team characteristics and successful team directed strategies may contribute to the implementation of innovations. The literature was searched for evidence. METHODS: A literature review was performed including key words related to nursing teams, innovations, team characteristics and team-directed strategies. On-line databases were searched (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC database and Cochrane reviews CENTRAL). The journal Quality and Safety in Healthcare (QSHC) was hand searched. Methodological quality was assessed. RESULTS: Initially, 323 titles were found. Screening of titles and abstracts and full texts resulted in nine articles meeting the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the studies was generally low. The innovations included different types of practices. Fifteen different team characteristics were labeled according to six features of successful teams. Twenty-one different team-directed strategies were identified and inductively categorized. CONCLUSION: Few studies and little evidence were found for the relevance of team characteristics and team directed strategies in the implementation of nursing innovations. Feedback was most frequently used as a strategy. Leadership could be labeled as a team characteristic as well as a team directed strategy. Further research should be of good methodological quality and focusing on patient outcomes and time and costs invested in strategy delivery. This increases scientific knowledge on nursing implementation strategies focusing on leadership.

Pain prevalence and pain relief in trauma patients in the Accident & Emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Acute pain in the A&E department (ED) has been described as a problem, however insight into the problem for trauma patients is lacking. OBJECTIVE: This study describes the prevalence of pain, the pain intensity and the effect of conventional pain treatment in trauma patients in the ED. METHODS: In a prospective cohort study of 450 trauma patients, pain was measured on admission and at discharge, using standardized and validated pain instruments. RESULTS: The prevalence of pain was high, both on admission (91%) and at discharge (86%). Two thirds of the trauma patients reported moderate or severe pain at discharge. Few patients received pharmacological or non-pharmacological pain relieving treatment during their stay in the ED. Pain decreased in 37% of the patients, did not change at all in 46%, or had increased in 17% of the patients at discharge from the ED. The most effective pain treatment given was a combination of injury treatment and supplementary pharmacological interventions, however this treatment was given to a small group of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Acute pain in trauma patients is a significant problem in the ED's. Pain itself does not seem to be treated systematically and sufficiently, anywhere in the cycle of injury treatment in the ED.