Question

Identify key interventions in your practice. What evidence supports the use of the intervention?

What patient safety measures are considered?

Describe the consistency of this practice across settings (e.g., different facilities, different settings, different nurses).

Provide your responses in an APA formatted paper.

Answer 1

Evidence-based practice is a vital part of enhancing critical care nursing practice, which is essential for providing quality care to patients. Adopting EBP to your culture improves patient outcomes and patient, family, and healthcare provider satisfaction. It can also reduce costs and the risk of harm by decreasing unnecessary tests and procedures.

An example of an evidence-based project might include investigating the use of pharmacological venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis for patients who underwent a craniotomy and are recovering in the neuro ICU. A problem-focused trigger was identified because these patients were developing hospital-acquired VTEs. Nurses developed a PICOT question and researched the literature. A PICOT question is a four-part method of building a question that identifies the problem, intervention, comparison, outcome, and timing.

Nurses critiqued the literature to ensure it answered the PICOT question and rated it for strength and quality. They monitored the pharmacological prophylaxis application and VTE rate. A protocol was implemented: pharmacological prophylaxis initially was 20% and increased to more than 90%. Due to this increase, the VTE rate in this patient population fell below the benchmark.

Another eample is Intravenous Catheter Size and Blood Administration
Nursing assessment should guide the choice of intravenous catheter size in nonurgent packed red blood cell transfusions.

To achieve the desired clinical effects of a packed red blood cell infusion, infusion of blood products without the application of pressure is necessary, rather than insertion of the largest intravenous catheter possible.

Using a smaller-gauge intravenous catheter to transfuse packed red blood cells increases patients’ comfort and satisfaction, and by potentially avoiding the need for insertion of a central catheter, eliminates some costs and thus reduces costs overall