Health-care professionals' documentation of wellbeing in patients following open heart surgery: a content analysis of medical records

Nursing Documentation Practices and Related Factors in Patient Care in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background

Ineffective nursing documentation practices have been reported to negatively impact patient outcomes and health professional efficiency. On the prevalence of nurses' documentation practices in Ethiopia, several separate studies have been carried out. However, there is no pooled prevalence of nurses' documentation practice. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the overall prevalence of nursing care documentation practice and related factors in Ethiopia.

Methods and Materials

This review only included articles that were published. The main databases were Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, Ethiopian University Repository Online, and the Cochrane Library. Cross-sectional studies that satisfy the criteria and are written in English are included in the review. Using a random effects model, the pooled prevalence of nurses' documentation practices was determined. The funnel plot and the Eggers test were also used to look into publication bias. All statistical analyses were done with STATA version 14.

Result

This review included nine studies with a total of 2,900 participants. The pooled prevalence of nurses' documentation practice in Ethiopia was 50.01% (95% CI: 42.59 and 57.18; I2 = 93.8%; and P ≤ 0.001). In terms of subgroup analysis, Addis Ababa had the highest prevalence of nurses' documentation practice at 84% (95% CI: 77.18 and 90.82), while Southern Ethiopia had the lowest at 40.00% (95% CI: 38.10 and 44.90). Nursing documentation practices were statistically associated with the availability of nursing documentation formats, adequate nurse-to-patient ratio, motivation, and training.

Conclusion

This review showed that one in two nurses practiced poor documentation of their daily activities in Ethiopia. Therefore, strict monitoring, evaluation, and supervision of nursing care documentation services are highly recommended for all stakeholders. We strongly recommend improving the identified factors by arranging training for nurses, motivating them, providing adequate documentation formats, and maintaining a nurse-to-patient ratio.

Pitfalls of Advanced Retinopathy of Prematurity Presentation: A Content Analysis of Medical Records

Purpose

To identify the pitfalls in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening leading to advanced disease at Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

Methods

A qualitative deductive content analysis was used to study the phenomena of defects in ROP screening. A retrospective review of medical records of newborns presenting to two tertiary eye care centers with advanced ROP (stage 4 and 5) from January 2012 to June 2019 was completed. An extensive review of the original files at the referring hospitals was conducted, including the general condition and findings of ophthalmic examination and the sequence of follow-up until the infant was discharged/referred. Data analysis was completed using pre-structured categorization matrix.

Results

Records of 29 infants with advanced stage ROP were identified. Only 13 medical records were available and obtained. The pitfalls in screening found in the study were failure to refer by the neonatologist, delayed follow-up by the ophthalmologist, failure to follow-up by the ophthalmologist, failure to diagnose by the ophthalmologist, poor documentation in patient files, unavailability of ophthalmologist, family negligence, lack of treatment and delayed referral to a higher center, and progression despite timely screening and management.

Conclusion

Although clear ROP screening guidelines are available, implementations of these guidelines are suboptimal. This study showed that the most common defect in screening is physician’s inadequacy and unavailability. A proper network of competent ROP screening physicians in all neonatal intensive care units should be established. Centers for advanced ROP surgery should be allocated to deliver a timely surgical care if needed.

Using Patient Reported Outcomes Measures to Promote Integrated Care

INTRODUCTION

Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) have been introduced as standardised outcomes, but have not been implemented widely for disease targeted pathways of care, nor for geriatric patients who prefer functional performance and quality of life.

DISCUSSION

We describe innovative multipurpose implementation of PROMs as evidenced by two best practices of PROMs application in geriatric and physiotherapy practice. We show that PROMs can show meaningful outcomes in older subjects' patient journeys, which can at the same time serve individuals and groups of both patients and professionals.

KEY LESSON

PROMs can deliver generic outcomes relevant for older patients, may improve patient-physician relationship, quality of care and prediction of future outcomes in geriatric care, if they are valid, reliable and responsive, but still short and simple. A precondition to make the hard tip from research to practice is that PROMs are carefully positioned in the clinical encounters and in electronic health records.

Presentations of adult septic patients in the prehospital setting as recorded by emergency medical services: a mixed methods analysis

Background

Current sepsis screening tools rely on vital parameters which are, however, normal in one third of patients with serious infections. Therefore, there is a need to include other variables than vital parameters to identify septic patients. Our primary aim was to identify and quantify keywords related to the septic patients’ symptom presentation in the prehospital setting. The secondary aims were to compare keywords in relation to in-hospital mortality and the distribution of keywords in relation to age categories, survivors/ deceased and severe/ non-severe sepsis.

Methods

A mixed methods analysis using a sequential exploratory design was performed, starting with a content analysis of presentations of septic patients as documented in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) records (n = 80) from 2012, to identify keywords related to sepsis presentation. Thereafter, the identified keywords were quantified among 359 septic patients from 2013. All patients were adults, admitted to Södersjukhuset and discharged with an ICD-10-code (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision) compatible with sepsis.

Results

The most common keywords related to septic patients’ symptom presentation were: abnormal/ suspected abnormal temperature (64.1.%), pain (38.4%), acute altered mental status (38.2%), weakness of the legs (35.1%), breathing difficulties (30.4%), loss of energy (26.2%) and gastrointestinal symptoms (24.0%). There was an association between keywords and in-hospital mortality. Symptoms varied between age categories, survivors/ deceased and severe/ non-severe sepsis.

Discussion

This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study exploring the symptom presentation as documented by EMS, of septic patients in the prehospital setting. Keywords related to patients´ symptom presentation recurred in the EMS records of septic patients, so that a pattern was discernible. In addition, certain symptom presentations were associated with increased in-hospital mortality

Conclusions

Information relating to symptom presentation is not included in current sepsis screening tools. We suggest that keywords related to patients´ symptom presentation could be integrated into screening tools and may thus increase the identification of sepsis, and potentially also identify high-risk patients. However, as a first step, the specificity of these keywords, with respect to sepsis, needs to be examined.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13049-017-0367-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Expert Nurses' Perceptions of the Relevance of Carper's Patterns of Knowing to Junior Nurses

This study explored with expert nurses in the UK how nursing wisdom can be developed in new and junior nurses. Carper's patterns of knowing and Benner's novice-to-expert continuum formed the theoretical framework. Employing a constructionist research methodology with participant engagement in co-construction of findings, data were collected via 2 separate cycles comprising 4 consecutive sessions followed by a nationally advertised miniconference. Empirical, ethical, personal, and esthetic knowing was considered evident in junior nurses. Junior nurses in the UK seem to lack a previously unrecognized domain of organizational knowing without which they cannot overcome hegemonic barriers to the successful development of nursing praxis.

Nursing care documentation practice: The unfinished task of nursing care in the University of Gondar Hospital

INTRODUCTION

Even though nursing care documentation is an important part of nursing practice, it is commonly left undone. The objective of this study was to assess nursing care documentation practice and the associated factors among nurses who are working at the University of Gondar Hospital.

METHODS

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 220 nurses working at the University of Gondar Hospital inpatient wards from March 20 to April 30, 2014. Data were collected using a structured and pre-tested self-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi Info version 7 and analyzed with SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out.

RESULTS

Two hundred and six nurses returned the questionnaire. Good nursing care documentation practice among nurses was 37.4%. A low nurse-to-patient ratio AOR = 2.15 (95%CI [1.155, 4.020]), in-service training on standard nursing process AOR = 2.6 (95%CI[1.326, 5.052]), good knowledge AOR = 2.156(95% CI [1.092, 4.254]), and good attitude toward nursing care documentation AOR = 2.22 (95% CI [1.105, 4.471] were significantly associated with nursing care documentation practice.

CONCLUSION

Most of the nursing care provided remains undocumented. Nurse-to-patient ratio, in-service training, knowledge, and attitude of nurses toward nursing care documentation were factors associated with nursing care documentation practice.

Postoperative pain documentation in a hospital setting: A topical review

Background and aims

Nursing documentation supports continuity of care and provides important means of communication among clinicians. The aim of this topical review was to evaluate the published empirical studies on postoperative pain documentation in a hospital setting.

Methods

The review was conducted through a systematic search of electronic databases: Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Ovid/Medline, Scopus and Cochrane Library. Ten studies were included. Study designs, documented postoperative pain information, quality of pain documentation, reported quality of postoperative pain management and documentation, and suggestions for future research and practice improvements were extracted from the studies.

Results

The most commonly used study design was a descriptive retrospective patient record review. The most commonly reported types of information were pain assessment, use of pain assessment tools, useof pain management interventions, reassessment, types of analgesics used, demographic information and pain intensity. All ten studies reported that the quality of postoperative pain documentation does not meet acceptable standards and that there is a need for improvement. The studies found that organization of regular pain management education for nurses is important for the future.

Conclusions

Postoperative pain documentation needs to beimproved. Regular educational programmes and development of monitoring systems for systematic evaluation of pain documentation are needed. Guidelines and recommendations should be based on the latest research evidence, and systematically implemented into practice.

Implications

Comprehensive auditing tools for evaluation of pain documentation can make quality assessment easier and coherent. Specific and clear documentation guidelines are needed and existing guidelines should be better implemented into practice. There is a need to increase nurses’ knowledge of postoperative pain management, assessment and documentation. Studies evaluating effectiveness of high quality pain documentation are required.