Acquiring, Processing and Disseminating Knowledge

While working as an ICU nurse, a challenging situation that we encountered was the prolonged stay of patients in the ICU due to late mobility. This resulted in poor patient outcomes, increased nursing workload, and reduced nurse and patient satisfaction rates. I was determined to establish whether having scheduled times for mobility for hemodynamically stable patients could influence early mobility and subsequently increase patient and nurse satisfaction, improve patient health outcomes, and reduce the nursing workload.

I obtained data about this situation from the hospitals EHRs system and built new knowledge from information in peer-reviewed journals obtained in electronic scientific databases. Anderson et al., (2018) recommended moving patients through ambulation, bedside toileting, or standing every 4-6 hours by a multidisciplinary team. Members of this team may comprise of the following: a respiratory therapist, rehabilitation therapist, physician, and an ICU nurse, with well-defined roles and responsibilities (Burch, Bernert & Fraser, 2018). Since the databases were up to date and used the most recent application programs, there was a very limited to no likelihood of redundancy. Besides, the search for peer-reviewed journals was easy using keywords, queries, and host languages.Acquiring, Processing and Disseminating Knowledge

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I recorded the knowledge electronically using a laptop and disseminated it using a projector as a PowerPoint presentation and using posters. The posters contained graphics and briefly summarized the relevant content in simple language for easy understanding. All staff who cared for patients in the ICU availed themselves to listen to the presentation at a date by the hospital’s leadership.  Thereafter, the organization’s leadership unanimously agreed to form a multidisciplinary team that developed organizational policy guidelines for practice for implementation.

References

Anderson, R. J., Sparbel, K., Barr, R. N., Doerschug, K., & Corbridge, S. (2018). Electronic health record tool to promote team communication and early patient mobility in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Nurse, 38(6), 23-34. doi:10.4037/ccn2018813

Burch, D., Bernert, S., & Fraser, J. F. (2018). Increased physician and physical therapist communication is associated with earlier mobility and decreased length of stay in the cerebrovascular and trauma neuroscience population. NeuroRehabilitation, 43(2), 195-199. doi:10.3233/nre-182444 Acquiring, Processing and Disseminating Knowledge