-
- Peter Stuart, Jane Lee, Gill Arnold, and Melanie Davis.
- University Hospital of Leicester (UHL), Leicester.
- Br J Nurs. 2008 Apr 24; 17 (8): 512-6.
AbstractSymptom control is an important part of maintaining a palliative patient's comfort and dignity, particularly in the end stages of their illness. Within the discipline of palliative care, the use of continuous subcutaneous syringe drivers is an important way of administering drugs at the end stages of a patient's illness to maintain symptom control. This study identified that ward staff had difficulty in obtaining the correct equipment, such as administration sets and Luer-lock syringes, leading to significant delays in patients being given drugs, affecting patient care and, when unable to obtain the correct equipment, the incorrect equipment was used. It was also identified that there was no consistent approach to the use or maintenance of syringe drivers, with a clear risk to patient safety. The study aim was to identify whether the introduction of a centralized storage system of set boxes containing all the relevant equipment would resolve these issues and improve patient care and safety. The audit showed that a centralized storage system enhanced practice by ensuring that there was a standardized approach to the initiation and care of syringe drivers, including equipment when used in the palliative care setting. The system also provided easy access to the correct equipment, reducing in the delay of commencing treatment, as well as the risk of any adverse events.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.