Progress in cardiovascular nursing
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Monitoring nursing care standards in a routine, systematic way greatly enhances the ability to document quality nursing care to identify potential problem areas. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations recommends a ten step process for developing a relevant system for evaluating the quality of nursing care. This article outlines how these steps were used to develop and implement a system of monitoring and evaluation of nursing care which is conducted by staff nurses in a 24 bed cardiovascular intensive care unit.
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Prog Cardiovasc Nurs · Jul 1989
Risk factors associated with pressure ulcers in the pediatric patient following open--heart surgery.
From a retrospective chart audit conducted on 59 infants and children who had survived open-heart surgery, 16.9% were found to have developed ulcers on the occipital region of their scalps during the postoperative period. Four risk factors were identified: age, type of congenital heart defect, length of time intubated, and length of stay in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). A protocol designed to decrease the amount of pressure and shearing force applied to the occipital region of these patients postoperatively was implemented. A dramatic decline to 4.8% in the incidence of pressure ulcers was noted after implementation of the protocol.