Paper: A Phenomenological Study to Describe Nurse Expert Knowledge for the Promotion of Patient Outcomes with Infusion Therapy (40th Biennial Convention (October 31st- November 4th, 2009))

Sunday, November 1, 2009: 4:55 PM

Jeanette Spain Adams, RN, PhD, CRNI, ACNS, BC
Consultant, New York, NY

Learning Objective 1: Describe three ways of knowing for expert nurses in infusion nursing practice.

Learning Objective 2: Relate two concepts of expert nursing knowledge to patients receiving infusion care.

Infusion care has become a routine part of the health regimen of patients in acute care. Reports indicate over 80% of all general hospital admissions receive some form of infusion therapy¹. All acute care nurses are responsible for intravenous skills and knowledge. Skills require practice to acquire competency and knowledge to understand the underlying principles to promote positive patient outcomes. Infusion nurse experts not only possess skill in infusion practice, but also have gained knowledge to facilitate vascular access through assessment and critical thinking. Benner’s landmark, From novice to expert, describes this process as embedded knowledge².

Evidence based practice is the standard for nursing practice. One of the tiers for evidence base practice is the expert knowledge and clinical observations from nurses³. Knowledge that is attained through years of practice in a specialty is most often contained within the realms of the expert nurse. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to investigate the embedded knowledge shared by expert infusion nurses.

A convenience sample of 25 ANCC certified registered nurse infusionists were interviewed using a semi-structured instrument. The audio-recorded interviews were analyzed for themes and concepts with the assistance of qualitative data analysis software.

The results of this study found themes related to the following categories: assessment and knowledge of history and patient/client characteristics, pharmacological influences, pathophysiological influences, and nursing care. Descriptions of the themes and the implications for nursing practice are presented. The findings of this study have implications for our multi-cultural population and our global partners in infusion nursing.

References

Walker SR, Farraj R, Papavassilios V, Arvantis D. (2006) A descriptive survey of the different management practices for peripheral intravenous catheters among Greek, Jordanian and Australian teaching hospitals.
Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Menlo Park, CA: Addision-Wesley.
DiCenso, Guyatt, Ciliska, (2005). Evidence-Based Nursing A Guide to Clinical Practice. St. Louis: Elsevier Mosby.

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