Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Robert McWhirt
Abstract
AbstractPatients in the trauma care setting are often dependent on their families and physicians to decide medical treatments when they cannot participate in the process.But in up to one-third of cases, the surrogate decision-maker (SDM)selected by the patient is not the emergency contact listed in the electronic medical record (EMR).SDM identification and documentation will ensure that the patient is best represented by someone who knows their values and goals if they become incapacitated.Nurses can facilitate identifying a patient’s SDM and document this choice in the EMR.The purpose of this study was a staff education program to improve intensive care unit (ICU) registered nurses’ (RNs’)knowledge of SDM identification.Adult learning theory informed the evidence-based educationfor ICURNs regardingknowledge and technical instruction to identify and document the SDM in the EMR.A convenience sample of32ICU RNs weregiven staff education and a post-education survey to determineeducation effectiveness.The post-education surveys reflectedhighly positive scoring overall with opportunities for improvement on attention-grabbing and instructional methods.Then a pre-and post-chart audit tallied the number of before and after percentagesof EMR documented SDM in the traumatically injured adult ICU population.The project increased the documentation of SDM from a pre-education level of 10% to posteducation level of 86%.This project contributes to social change by equipping ICURNs with the knowledge to manage SDM identification and documentationto improve patient autonomy and decrease the social and medical burden on families, staff,and providers.
Recommended Citation
Evans, Kelly Ann, "Focused Surrogate Decision-Maker Identification in the Traumatically Injured Adult" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 12343.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/12343
