Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Linda K. Matheson

Abstract

Obstetric hemorrhage is one of the most common causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. The measurement of quantitative blood loss (QBL) at delivery prevents clinicians from failing to recognize hemorrhage in healthy obstetric patients who initially compensate for excessive blood loss. The purpose of this project was to improve the compliance of labor and delivery nurses in a community hospital with consistent QBL measurement. Key theories that formed the basis for the project were Lewin's theory of planned change and homeostasis. The project question addressed was: Is the use of weekly scorecards to provide feedback to nurses with both blinded individual data and aggregate unit data associated with an increase in the percent of patients with blood loss at delivery documented as a QBL measurement over a 12-week period of time? A blinded scorecard of the percent of deliveries attended by each nurse that had QBL documented and an aggregate run chart of the percent of all deliveries with QBL documented were posted in the unit weekly. The postings included discussions of means to enhance facilitators of and decrease barriers to QBL measurement. Over 12 weeks, the percent of deliveries with QBL documented increased from 22.7% to 80.0%. This result is consistent with previous reports that clear and objective feedback from scorecards is associated with improvement in performance. Scorecard feedback may be explored to determine if it is associated with improvement of other nursing practices. This project has implications for positive social change as it may contribute to a reduction in preventable maternal deaths. Decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality supports the health of women in a population and influences the health of the next generation.

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