Poster Presentation
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
9:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
Improving Patient Safety in Obstetrical Patients with Emergency Drills
Elizabeth Craig, MSN, Nursing, Lankenau Hospital, Wynnewood, PA, USA
| Learning Objective #1: identify strategies for Nursing Staff education that incorporate preparedness for obstetrical emergency situations through clinical scenarios while promoting an awareness of obstetrical challenges. |
| Learning Objective #2: hardwire a schedule of emergency drills, with a focus on clinical competency, detailed checklists, and critiques of drills to facilitate improvements in clinical practice. |
Nursing practice in the obstetrical environment involves many challenges. Leadership's role in the clinical setting and relationships with staff is critical and can influence clinical outcomes. Labor & Delivery units have a continuous flow of patients with many extreme census fluctuations. Nurse managers struggle to maintain clinical competence, provide safe nursing care to a high volume of patients, advance nursing practice, maintain established budget, meet operational demands of patients and physicians, and create a positive work environment for all staff. The balance of factors influencing patient outcomes is a daily challenge involving teamwork, communication, and decision making. These are the cornerstones of highly reliable teams. Regardless, unanticipated clinical outcomes continue to occur in a variety of settings. How do we prevent adverse outcomes proactively? One area of focus is in ongoing preparedness for unanticipated emergency situations. This can be difficult to execute. Some factors influencing implementation may be that the simulations or scenarios may not be relevant to the clinical setting, the unit is too busy, the staff have conflicting priorities with patient care, and interdisciplinary groups can not reach consensus. Obstetrical Emergency Drills can foster a work environment which promotes an awareness of challenges, incorporates education and preparedness for emergency situations into daily routine while integrating initiatives of all interdisciplinary groups to enhance perinatal patient outcomes. This initiative hardwired a schedule of emergency drills, with a focus on clinical competency, detailed checklists, and critiques of drills to facilitate improvements in clinical practice. Employee survey data demonstrated improvements in scores related to development of new skills and promotion of a safe environment for patients and staff. In addition, the majority of staff participated in the emergency drills which were perceived as very helpful. Scheduled drills can be done in Labor & Delivery and impact staff preparedness.