The role of nurses in preventing adverse events related to respiratory dysfunction: literature review

Aims. This paper reports a literature review examining the relationship between specific clinical indicators of respiratory dysfunction and adverse events, and exploring the role of nurses in preventing adverse events related to respiratory dysfunction.Background. Adverse events in hospital are associated with poor patient outcomes such as increased mortality and permanent disability. Many of these adverse events are preventable and are preceded by a period during which the patient exhibits clearly abnormal physiological signs. The role of nurses in preserving physiological safety by early recognition and correction of physiological abnormality is a key factor in preventing adverse events.Methods. A search of the Medline and CINAHL databases was conducted using the following terms: predictors of poor outcome, adverse events, mortality, cardiac arrest, emergency, oxygen, supplemental oxygen, oxygen therapy, oxygen saturation, oxygen delivery, assessment, patient assessment, physical assessment, dyspnoea, hypoxia, hypoxaemia, respiratory assessment, respiratory dysfunction, shortness of breath and pulse oximetry. The papers reviewed were research papers that demonstrated a relationship between adverse events and various clinical indicators of respiratory dysfunction.Results. Respiratory dysfunction is a known clinical antecedent of adverse events such as cardiac arrest, need for medical emergency team activation and unplanned intensive care unit admission. The presence of respiratory dysfunction prior to an adverse event is associated with increased mortality. The specific clinical indicators involved are alterations in respiratory rate, and the presence of dyspnoea, hypoxaemia and acidosis.Conclusions. The way in which nurses assess, document and use clinical indicators of respiratory dysfunction is influential in identifying patients at risk of an adverse event and preventing adverse events related to respiratory dysfunction. If such adverse events are to be prevented, nurses must not only be able to recognise and interpret signs of respiratory dysfunction, but must also take responsibility for initiating and evaluating interventions aimed at correcting respiratory dysfunction.<br /

Who, when and where? Identification of patients at risk of an in-hospital adverse event: Implications for nursing practice

Patients who suffer an adverse event (AE) are more likely to die or suffer permanent disability. Many AEs are preventable. Nurses have long played a pivotal role in the prevention of AEs. Much of the literature to date pertains to the role of nurses in the prevention of AEs such as falls, pressure areas and deep vein thrombosis. Prominent risk factors for AEs are the presence of physiological abnormality, failure to recognize or correct physiological abnormality, advanced patient age and location of patient room. Ongoing physiological assessment of patients is a nursing responsibility and the assessment findings of nurses underpin many patient care decisions. The early recognition and correction of physiological abnormality can improve patient outcomes by reducing the incidence of AEs, making nurses\u27 ability to identify, interpret and act on physiological abnormality a fundamental factor in AE prediction and prevention. This paper will examine the role of nurses in AE prevention, using cardiac arrest as an example, from the perspective of physiological safety; that is, accurate physiological assessment and the early correction of physiological abnormality.<br /

Survival After In-Hospital Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To determine the rates of immediate survival and survival to discharge for adult patients undergoing in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and to identify demographic and clinical variables associated with these outcomes. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The MEDLARS database of the National Library of Medicine was searched. In addition, the authors' extensive personal files and the bibliography of each identified study were searched for further studies. Two sets of inclusion criteria were used, minimal (any study of adults undergoing in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and strict (included only patients from general ward and intensive care units, and adequately defined cardiopulmonary arrest and resuscitation). Each study was independently reviewed and abstracted in a nonblinded fashion by two reviewers. The data abstracted were compared, and any discrepancies were resolved by consensus discussion. For the subset of studies meeting the strict criteria, the overall rate of immediate survival was 40.7% and the rate of survival to discharge was 13.4%. The following variables were associated with failure to survive to discharge: sepsis on the day prior to resuscitation (odds ratio [OR] 31.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9, 515), metastatic cancer (OR 3.9; 95% CI 1.2, 12.6), dementia (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.1, 8.8), African-American race (OR 2.8; 95% CI 1.4, 5.6), serum creatinine level at a cutpoint of 1.5 mg/dL (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.2, 3.8), cancer (OR 1.9; 95% CI 1.2, 3.0), coronary artery disease (OR 0.55; 95% CI 0.4, 0.8), and location of resuscitation in the intensive care unit (OR 0.51; 95% CI 0.4, 0.8). CONCLUSIONS: When talking with patients, physicians can describe the overall likelihood of surviving discharge as 1 in 8 for patients who undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation and 1 in 3 for patients who survive cardiopulmonary resuscitation