Date of Award

Spring 3-24-2021

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Second Advisor

Ellen M. Harvey DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, TCRN, FCCM

Abstract

External ventricular drains (EVD) are a common intervention in critical care areas for the management of hydrocephalus. The most common complication of this life-saving intervention is infection, which negatively impacts patient outcomes and overall healthcare costs. Current evidence shows that interdisciplinary team rounding improves compliance with evidence-based practice and reduces hospital-associated infection rates. The PICOT question that guided this project is: For patients with an external ventricular drain (EVD), what is the effect of interdisciplinary team rounding compared with the current practice of informal rounding, on compliance with an EVD care bundle and EVD-associated cerebrospinal fluid infections over two months? This paper will discuss how interdisciplinary team rounding was implemented in four critical care units at a level I trauma center located in Southwest Virginia. The implementation of this rounding process has resulted in zero infections at the practice site for the duration of the intervention and for a total of eight months to date. Despite the sample size for the project being much smaller than anticipated, the paper will show both clinical significance as well as anecdotal evidence to support this intervention as a successful part of a multifaceted approach to infection prevention.

Comments

Scholarly project submitted to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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