Surveillance nursing diagnoses, ongoing assessment and outcomes on in-patients who suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest

Objective: Th e purposes of this study were to examine the frequency of surveillance-oriented nursing diagnoses and interventions documented in the electronic care plans of patients who experienced a cardiac arrest during hospitalization, and to observe whether diff erences exist in terms of patients' profi les, surveillance measurements and outcomes. Method: A descriptive, observational, retrospective, cross-sectional design, randomly including data from electronic documentation of patients who experienced a cardiac arrest during hospitalization in any of the 107 adult wards of eight acute care facilities. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Two-tailed p-values are reported. Results: Almost 60% of the analyzed patients' e-charts had surveillance nursing diagnoses charted in the electronic care plans. Signifi cant diff erences were found for patients who had these diagnoses documented and those who had not in terms of frequency of vital signs measurements and fi nal outcomes. Conclusion: Surveillance nursing diagnoses may play a signifi cant role in preventing acute deterioration of adult in-patients in the acute care setting