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Category: Collaboration

Presenting Change

December 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments
CLABSI-Prevention-BrochureDownload

            We did not get any responses to our surveys from our infographic. This may have been that the infographics were put in a place with not much traffic, or that the nurses were too busy. When considering a potential employer, I would want them to know that I am willing to contribute to quality improvement and evidence-based practice initiatives. I would discuss my background with the CLABSI project and how I would advocate for ways to help prevent CLABSI’s on the floor. 

 I learned a lot about how patients contract CLABSI’s, which most often happens when the hub of the central line is not cleaned properly. Time is often a factor that prevents central line hubs from being cleaned properly.  I also learned that some floors and hospitals may not have the correct supplies (chlorohexidine or alcohol wipes) to clean central line hubs properly, which I had not thought of prior to doing this project. I also learned how it is important to make sure you are not leaving any materials on the bed when cleaning a central line hub such as the alcohol caps, or the wipes and packaging as these could get lost in the patients bedding and/or cause an abrasion. 

            Our team process throughout this project went smoothly overall. We were able to complete all our work on time and were able to split up the responsibilities of the work evenly. We did most of our project during our in-person time and if we didn’t finish any of if, we would put the assignment on a google doc and work together on it. This worked out well, if we had any questions, or wanted to edit any part of the work. One thing I learned about myself as a team member is that I like to work with others and working with a team helps me be more productive. 

Proposing Change

November 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Final-Project-Proposal.docxDownload

Since we identified our topic of preventing CLABSI’s we have learned a lot about CLABSI rates in the hospital and why and how they occur. The literature review did not really change any assumptions I had about the topic but gave me a better insight into why CLABSI’s occur so frequently. We did need to make our topic more specific at the beginning of this process as we started out with the broad idea of CLABSI prevention but narrowed it more specifically to “scrubbing the hub”. One finding that I had not previously thought about was access to supplies. One of the studies mentioned how some units did not have enough alcohol or chlorohexidine wipes which are used to clean the caps to central lines.

            Since reviewing the statistics in the literature and seeing nurses on the floor not always “scrub the hub” I will always think about CLABSI prevention when going into practice. I know that I will always be busy but taking a minute to “scrub the hub” will be beneficial to my patients in the long run, and result in better health outcomes for them.  I will also try to remember to carry alcohol wipes in my pockets so I can be efficient when doing central line care for the patient. 

            One thing our team has been successful with is organization and getting our work completed before the due date. We have also been successful with distributing our work evenly and working together to get the project done. Our team process usually included sharing a google doc where we could all work on parts of the section of the project due each week at our own pace, and before the due date we would go over it to see if any edits needed to be made. We would also use class time to make any revisions if we had already finished the majority of the section that was due for that week. I think this process has worked well so far, and the amount of work has been distributed fairly. 

Planning Change

September 22, 2022 / / 1 Comment

My clinical group chose to focus on preventing CLABSI’s for our dissemination project. More specifically, we want to focus on consistently scrubbing the hub of the IV port before administering medication. We saw some staff members not doing this consistently on our clinical floor, so we wanted to address that. I think that this project will be accomplished with hard work and collaboration from all of us. We can communicate in class and clinical about how to best complete the project and make any changes if we need to. If we have any conflicts, I think it would be best if we addressed them as a group, so we can figure out what we should do moving forward.

            One benefit we might anticipate in completing this project is becoming more familiar with CLABSI’s and how to recognize and prevent them from occurring. Hopefully, we will be able to see more focus on CLABSI prevention on the floor when we are done with this project. I think it will be very helpful to go thought this project, so we are able to see how to start going about making evidence-based improvements in patient care. Hopefully I will be able to use what I learned in this project and use it in practice.

Final Reflection

May 2, 2022 / / 0 Comments

One thing I learned from this project is that the mental health of patients is often neglected when there is a larger physical problem that needs to be cared for. In the future, when I am practicing, I will make sure to consider how my patients mental health may be affected and what I might be able to do to help them. While there is a strong correlation between amputations and negative psychological effects such as depression and anxiety as it is a huge physical change, simply just being in the hospital may cause a patient’s mental health to suffer. I will work to make sure I take care of both my patients physical and mental health. I would want potential employers to know that I am willing and able to contribute to evidence-based practice initiatives while working, and that I work well in a team environment.

            Our team process throughout this project went very smoothly overall. We were able to complete our work on time, and each of us did an equal amount of work. Usually, we would try to do most of the project in person, so we could ask questions and help each other if we had questions. One thing I learned about myself as a team member is that I like to work with others, and that working with others helps me be more productive over all.

Appraisal and Synthesis Reflection

April 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

            Through evidence appraisal and synthesis, I discovered a lot more about the variety of psychological effects that can occur after a traumatic amputation. The literature appraisal and synthesis did not really change my assumptions on the topic of amputations, but rather affirmed our research question and topic.  It was interesting to see recurring themes of some of the most common psychological effects (depression, PTSD) throughout each of the research articles. No matter what field of nursing I go into, something that I can take with me from this research is that the mental health of patients is equally as important as their physical health, especially after a traumatic event. It is important to take the patients mental wellbeing into your care, as it can have a big effect on their healing. My teammate and I arrived at similar conclusions about the finding of this research. We both agreed that it was interesting to see the similarities and patterns of healing in many of the patients following an amputation. Our team process is going smoothly, we were both able to split up the work evenly, and help each other if there were any questions.

From Inquiry Through Discovery

February 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Our team did need to revise our topic and question slightly. Our topic involves mental health and psychological affects after an amputation. We ended up getting rid of the time component as it wasn’t necessary and thinking more about what specific negative psychological effects we could look into such as anxiety, anger, hostility, and the tendency towards social isolation. It was a bit challenging to revise our PICOT question at first, but I feel that we were able to make some good improvements. A success we experienced was finding three good articles for our paper. We looked into a lot of articles regarding amputation and decided ours should be focused more on traumatic amputations versus planned amputations. I think focusing on traumatic amputations will make it easier to explore negative psychological effects. Our process of finding the articles worked well as we each picked a few we though would work, and then went through the articles together to pick the most relevant ones. 

Planning the Journey

February 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I think that this team project will be accomplished through setting out clear goals and ideas to keep us on track. Our communication plan involves splitting up the work evenly and keeping a google doc of all our ideas and notes that we can put towards our project. We have been using this to help decide on our topic for our final paper. We can hold ourselves accountable by setting clear due dates for when we need to get a section of the project done and reminding each other about what work we need to complete. Our plan for conflict management involves being open with each other if we feel someone is not doing enough work and making checklists for each of us to stick to, although I do not think we will face any barriers during this project. One benefit to completing this project as a team is that we can bounce ideas off each other and learn how to collaborate while doing research. This will be helpful in future nursing practice as healthcare workers of different professions often come together to work with each other on research and finding the best way to provide quality patient care. 

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