DescriptionPurpose
Patients are admitted from the operating room to the intensive care unit (ICU) for ICU nurses to recover patients from anesthesia. However, ICU nurses are not receiving the same training as post-anesthesia care nurses. To ensure the best outcomes, ICU nurses must receive education about caring for the post-operative patient.
Methodology
This project was a pre and post-test interventional design with one group of participants. An educational session about types of anesthesia, common complications from anesthesia, and guidelines about caring for the post-operative patient was presented to ICU nurses at a local hospital. A pre-test, post-test, and one month follow up test was completed by participants to see if knowledge changed as a result of the educational session. Data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics.
Results
The mean score of the pretest was 50, post-test was 86.6, and follow-up test was 80. A Friedman test yielded a statistically significant result indicating that the change in scores between the pretest, posttest, and follow up test were significant. The Wilcoxon test showed there was a significant change in test scores for the pretest compared to the posttest and the pretest compared to the follow up test.
Implications
This project is a stepping-stone for future research projects as there is currently minimal research about ICU nurses recovering patients from anesthesia. Additionally, this project provided education to ICU nurses about recovering patients from anesthesia, ongoing education can help to ensure competency and quality patient care. Finally, by having ICU nurses recover patients from anesthesia during off hours, the hospital can reduce the amount of money spent on on-call pay for PACU nurses