Nursing contributions to mobilizing older adults following total hip replacement in Ireland

Determination of Factors Affecting Early Mobilization of Patients Who Have Undergone Knee and Hip Arthroplasty

PURPOSE

This study was conducted in order to determine the factors that affected the early mobilization after surgery of patients who had undergone knee and hip arthroplasty.

DESIGN

This study is descriptive correlational.

METHODS

The study population consists patients who met the inclusion criteria and were hospitalized in a State Hospital Orthopedics and Traumatology Clinic in Turkey in order have the knee or hip arthroplasty surgery between the dates of November 7, 2017 and September 21, 2018. While selecting the sample, the purposive sampling method was used. The sample consists of 60 patients who were in the universe of the study, who meet the inclusion criteria and who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.

FINDINGS

The mean time of the first mobilization of the patients was 19 (9.15-72) hours. There were statistically significant relationships between mobilization time and age, gender, marital status, body mass index, past surgical history, chronic pain, blood transfusion before surgery, medical diagnosis, surgical procedure, bone cement usage, the score for American society of Anesthesiologists, surgical intervention time, post-operation nutrition, and defecation time.

CONCLUSION

The early mobilization time of the great majority of the patients who underwent knee and hip arthroplasty was in conformity with the enhanced recovery after surgery protocol.

Attributing the responsibility for ambulating patients: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Functional decline has been identified as a leading negative outcome of hospitalization for older person. Functional decline is defined as a loss in ability to perform activities of daily living including a loss of independent ambulation. In the hospital literature, a patient's loss in ability to independently ambulate during the hospital stay varies between 15 and 59%. Lack of ambulation and deconditioning effects of bed rest are one of the most predictable causes of loss of independent ambulation in hospitalized older persons. Nurses have been identified as the professional most capable of promoting walking independence in the hospital setting. However, nurses do not routinely walk patients.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nurses' attributions of responsibility for ambulating hospitalized patients and their decisions about whether to ambulate.

METHODS

A descriptive, secondary analysis of data gathered for a parent study was conducted. Grounded dimensional analysis was used to analyze the data. Participants consisted of 25 registered nurses employed on medical or surgical units from two urban hospitals in the United States.

RESULTS

Nurses fell into two groups: those who claimed ambulation of patients within their responsibility of practice and those who attributed the responsibility to another discipline. Nurses who claimed responsibility for ambulation focused on patient independence and psychosocial well-being. This resulted in actions related to collaborating with physical therapy, determining the appropriateness of activity orders, diminishing the risk and adjusting to resource availability. Nurses who attributed the responsibility deferred decisions about initiating ambulation to either physical therapy or medicine. This resulted in actions related to waiting, which involved, waiting for physical therapy clearance, physician orders, risks to decrease, and resources to improve before ambulating.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses who claimed responsibility for ambulating patients within their domain of practice described actions that promoted patient independent function and were more likely to get patient s up to ambulate.

Adverse risk: a 'dynamic interaction model of patient moving and handling'

AIM

The aim of the present study was to examine patient adverse events associated with sub-optimal patient moving and handling.

BACKGROUND

Few studies have examined the patient's perspective on adverse risk during manual handling episodes.

EVALUATION

A narrative review was undertaken to develop the 'Dynamic Interaction Model of Patient Moving and Handling' in an orthopaedic rehabilitation setting, using peer-reviewed publications published in English between 1992 and 2010.

KEY ISSUES

Five predominant themes emerged from the narrative review: 'patient's need to know about analgesics prior to movement/ambulation'; 'comfort care'; 'mastery of and acceptance of mobility aids/equipment'; 'psychological adjustment to fear of falling'; and 'the need for movement to prevent tissue pressure damage'.

CONCLUSION

Prevalence of discomfort, pain, falls, pressure sores together with a specific Direct Instrument Nursing Observation (DINO) tool enable back care advisers to measure quality of patient manual handling. Evaluation of patients' use of mobility aids together with fear of falling may be important in determining patients' recovery trajectory.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Clinical governance places a responsibility on nurse managers to consider quality of care for their service users. 'Dynamic Interaction Model of Nurse-Patient Moving and Handling' provides back care advisers, clinical risk managers and occupational health managers with an alternative perspective to clinical risk and occupational risk.