Hello classmates.  My name is Michael Rogers. I live in Oregon with my wife and four children.  I work as an ICU nurse in the float pool, working at five different hospitals in Oregon and Washington.  I float to 8 different ICUs within these hospitals including: medical/surgical, cardiovascular, neuro/trauma, and the burn center.

Nurses use research as a tool to prevent potential problems, to help care for patients, to enhance care, and to provide better health outcomes.  Using research is a valuable tool, as it guides the nurse in caring for patients by using evidence-based care methods along with the preferences of the patient.  Research can be conducted by nurses as an investigative tool to discover, develop, identify, promote, or enhance patient care and hospital policies and procedures.

I would like to give a real-life example of how a nurse I worked with used research to bring about a needed change in nursing procedures. About 6 years ago I worked for a hospital in Arizona in which we had a large number of patients who developed pressure ulcers while at the hospital.  Pressure ulcers result in harm to the patient and longer hospital stays.  According to the Health Research & Education Trust (2017), it is estimated that 60,000 patients die every year in the U.S. from pressure ulcer complications and cost the U.S. as much as $70,000 per patient, which is an annual cost of $11 billion.  A Clinical Nurse Coordinator at the hospital I worked for decided to run a study to figure out what was causing our hospital to have high numbers of patients who developed pressure ulcers while under our care.  The end goal of the study was to decrease the number of pressure ulcer occurrences.

The Clinical Nurse Coordinator found that in patients who had the “standard” bed set-up, which included a fitted sheet, bottom sheet, and a thick blue heavy pad (chuck), allowed moisture to be in direct contact with the patient’s skin and resulted in pressure ulcers.  She discovered that when the nurses got rid of the fitted sheet, loose sheet, and used a chuck pad that was thin, the rate of pressure ulcers decreased dramatically.  Through the study it was found that nurses where having difficulty finding the time and strength to turn patients every 2 hours.  The nurses needed more assistance with turning patients to save injury to the patient and nurse. Nurses were also having difficulty finding the time to deliver prompt and consistent turning.  A lift team was brought on board to assist nurses with lifting any patient over 175 pounds and to help turn patients every two hours. The research that was undertaken by the nurse brought about changes in policies and procedures that reduced the number of pressure ulcers dramatically and gave needed support and a safer work environment for all nurses.

Reference

Health Research & Educational Trust (2017). Preventing hospital acquired pressure ulcers/injures. Retrieved from http://www.hret-hiin.org/Resources/pressure-ulcers/17/hospital-acquired-pressure-ulcers-injuries-hapu-change-package.pdf