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  Increasing Sequential Compression Device Compliance

  Justin Buck and Vicki Rayburn

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  A venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurs when a blood clot forms in the vein. These typically form in the leg, which is referred to as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or in the lungs, which is referred to as a pulmonary embolism (PE). A VTE is a critical complication following any surgical procedure, but those undergoing total hip and total knee arthroplasties are at an even higher risk due to decreased mobility. Sequential compression devices (SCDs) are used on these particularly high-risk patients to combat the development of these adverse outcomes. SCDs use intermittent compression to promote adequate blood flow through the legs and the feet and decrease swelling. Patient compliance with SCDs is not as high as recommended due to various factors, including discomfort, lack of education, and inadequate staff usage.

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  30-60-90 Day Check-In

  Diane Capoccia, Kimberly Rawley, and Elizabeth Smagala

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Ineffective connection, communication and integration into unit culture with a new nurse may impact their future success on the unit. 4 East MICU was lead with an interim manager, after the resignation of two former Unit Managers over several years. During the process of introducing a new interim Manager, 4 East MICU had experienced high turnover of nurses within 1 year of being hired to the unit.

  The idea of 30-60-90-day check-ins while onboarding new employees was already in place, but not well established in the MICU. The collaborative efforts between the interim manager and the nurse educator, who had already established a relationship with the new employee weekly allowed for a teamoriented approach involving the unit leader, nurse educator and new nurse. Upon implementation, the new nurse would now formally meet with the Unit Manager and the Nurse Educator to gain insight and feedback on progress.

  While checking in with the employee may not prevent all employees from leaving, it can ensure the employee is learning, making progress, gaining practical experience, and are acclimating to the unit culture.

  The aim of the 30-60-90-day initiative was to supplement the unit educators already weekly check-ins and to decrease the number of nurse resignations within 1 year of hire in the MICU.

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  Implementation of an ERAS Program and a Standardized Closing Tray Reduces SSIs in Colorectal Operations

  Elizabeth Carlson, Nora Laban, Shelli Bergeron, Diana Lee, Donna Kayal, Michelle Jankowski, Lihua Qu, Kristin LeMarbe, and Harry J. Wasvary

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  ● Colorectal surgeries exhibit a postoperative surgical site infection (SSI) rate of up to 30%, surpassing rates in other surgical disciplines.1,2

  ● Previous studies have emphasized preventative approaches, including multidisciplinary SSI bundles, to mitigate postoperative SSIs.3,4

  AIM: To assess the efficacy of the Closing Tray Protocol and the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program in reducing SSIs, addressing the pressing need for effective infection control measures.

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  Improving Efficiency in Outpatient Blood Transfusions

  Maureen Cooper and Melanie Y. Miller

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  As the US population ages and delivery of care in outpatient settings is on the rise, ambulatory blood utilization is expected to increase (Menis, et. al, 2009). Outpatient blood transfusions are considered a viable option for patients who are stable, anemic, transfusion-dependent, or receiving ongoing treatment. Same day outpatient blood transfusion offers several benefits, including quality of life, reduced hospital stays, and minimized risks associated with longer hospitalizations, while also allowing patients to continue their daily routines.

  Outpatient transfusions allow patients to receive treatment at a time and location that is convenient for them, improving access to care and reducing the burden on patients and their families. Another benefit of offering outpatient transfusion is consistency of staff who are familiar with patient and procedure and not utilizing emergency center or inpatient beds for those who may have higher acuity or level of care beds.

  Outpatient transfusion patients are scheduled Monday-Saturday morning on 1S SSU. The unit is not a dedicated infusion center but is very efficient in caring for transfusion patients in addition to the outpatient surgical population.

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  Impact of Cluster Care Interventions on Patient Outcomes and Delirium in Adult Cardiac ICU Patients with Heart Failure Exacerbations

  Fotini Demetriou

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Heart failure exacerbations, acute or chronic, in adult patients are a leading cause of ICU admissions, with delirium being a common and serious complication in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Delirium can lead to:

  • Worsening patient conditions
  • Increased recovery time
  • Longer hospital stays
  • Decreased long-term outcomes

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  Reducing False Staff Emergency Alarms in a Progressive Care Unit

  Elli Doty, Emma Tarnutzer, and Alexandria Taylor

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Staff emergency alarms are imperative on a unit because they indicate the need for staff to immediately report to the needed room. Some emergencies can indicate a fall, a code, or a security threat. They are different than normal call lights in the way that they sound. The sound a staff emergency alarm produces is very loud and repetitive until more help can come to the situation. These alarms come to every phone logged into the unit so that even if you are on the opposite side of a unit, you know that there is a situation where staff is needed. Our floor is a “neurology” based floor where most of our patients are confused and may not be able to read or follow simple commands. With this, has come with an increase in false staff emergency alarms because patients may find this button on the wall and feel confused on what to do. Though this is true, we have found that even family members and staff members have frequently pressed the staff emergency alarm by mistake and creating false panic. This has created significant burnout between the staff, resulting in less staff coming to emergency alarms due to suspicion that it is fake. Our project is to simply put yellow sticky notes above the communication board in the rooms that read “STAFF ONLY”. The hope of this project was for patients, family members, and even staff members to take an extra moment before hitting the wrong button. In turn, the unit would experience less false emergency alarms so that nurses did not feel burnout when it comes to true emergencies.

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  Oncology Nurse Burnout

  Armani Garvin, Justin Mattson, and Maria Bowen

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Over the past few years, the demand for nurses has significantly increased. The Hospitals were often at full capacity while also facing staffing shortages. During this time, many experienced nurses retired, and the pool of new nurse applicants was insufficient to fill the gaps. As a result, existing nursing staff were left to manage increasing workloads, contributing to a surge in nurse burnout and a rise in compassion fatigue especially within oncology units.

  Given these challenges, we believe that encouraging time off or vacation could serve as an effective intervention to support the mental health of oncology nurses.

  • In De la Fuente-Solana et al, multiple dimensions of burnout were assessed, low, medium, high. This study concludes that individual personality plays a key role in burnout. "Nurses are more likely to develop emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of little personal accomplishment if they present high levels of neuroticism and low one of friendliness and responsibility."
  • In Pang et al,, physicians and nurses in the oncology field were surveyed. "Both physicians (91.9%) and nurses (89.8%) rated increasing paid vacation as the most priority strategy to prevent burnout

  Among Oncology Nurses, how does taking vacation time off versus not taking time off impact their mental health?

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  Stroke Landing Zone in Emergency Department Time is Brain – Improving Door to CT and Door to Needle Time for the Stroke Patient

  Leigh Grzywacz, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Schultz, Sara Chung, David Donaldson, and Kim Chapman-Hitchcock

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Corewell Health Beaumont Troy emergency department is a Level II trauma center and primary stroke center with an annual volume in 2023 of 108,311 patient visits. The emergency department is unique regarding the EMS community that is served in the area. The hospital is located on the boarder of two large counties. On average 65 patients arrive to the emergency department from both counties daily by EMS. Stroke education in the community of signs and symptoms of a stroke and the importance of rapid evaluation has occurred over the last 10 years. Many patients have recognized signs and symptoms of a stroke, activated EMS, and have been treated in the emergency department at Troy.

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  Use of a Pain Scale Chart in Medical-Surgical Patients

  Maren Hanna, Maya Vulaj, and Jacob Moores

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Pain is very subjective, and patients are oftentimes unable to assign a number to their pain due a to lack of understanding of the pain scale. Consequently, patients sometimes get underdosed or overdosed for their pain. On 7 Northeast, we currently ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of 1-10 without any chart or description as to what the numbers stand for in relation to pain. Many patients have verbalized their frustration on how to rate their pain because of their lack of understanding of the pain scale. Implementation of a pain chart in the room will help patients understand the severity of their pain and get medicated appropriately based on their reported score.

  A study conducted on an adult inpatient unit concluded a successful implementation of a pain scale. According to Hanson et al., “The goal of using the FPS (Functional Pain Scale) is to change pain management discussions from an intensity reduction to meeting goals of care, aligning expectations, and creating common language among patients and providers,” (2024). Patients do not always know how to rate their pain due to not having knowledge of the pain scale. They often do not get medicated correctly leading to more increased pain, anger, frustration, and a longer hospital stay due to unmanaged pain. The opposite can be said as well as some patients may be getting overmedicated with narcotics, leading to possible addiction

  In medical-surgical patients on 7 Northeast, would implementing a pain scale chart improve the accuracy of pain ratings during hospitalization?

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  Hammering it Out: developing a toolbox to orient inexperienced hemodialysis new hires

  Michael R. Jalaba, Maria B. Abuel, and Tarah Intocaso

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  To meet the care demands of patients with Chronic and Acute Renal Failure, the need for hemodialysis RNs continues to increase. Concerns about stressful work environment, long hours and staffing shortages often result in burnout and attrition (Enriquez et al 2025). Enhancement of shared governance and its potential for increasing work engagement may be helpful in addressing some of the more negative aspects of the Hemodialysis RN work experience.

  Recruitment of experienced nurses who do not have hemodialysis experience is one way to increase staffing. However, orientation can be lengthy. While the current Royal Oak unit orientation/competency checklist serves as documentation of completed computer modules and learned skills/concepts, our preceptors have stated that they need better tools. They shared that some of their past experiences at other sites with a training binder, including detailed daily/weekly lesson plans, objectives and content would help. In addition, although the unit doesn’t have enough turnover to allow for group new hire classes, preceptors requested some time to be away from the unit, in a quiet area, to review topics such as dialysis machine operation, vascular access management, and patient assessment/management of specific care to hemodialysis treatments

  CMS Conditions for Coverage state training must include key dialysis principles and procedures (initiation, monitoring and termination of treatment), documentation, vascular access care, possible complications such as hypotension, muscle cramps, headache, fever & chills, hemolysis, exsanguination and air embolism. Water treatment and dialysate preparation is also crucial as is infection control and patient safety (Payton, et al 2025).

  PICO Question: Will hemodialysis unit preceptors use of an orientation toolbox to train inexperienced hemodialysis RNs result in improved recruitment/retention and competency?

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  Code Blue Review: Increasing Knowledge of Code Blue Procedures for Staff

  Annabel Jefferies

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  In November 2024, we noticed significant confusion among staff members during a code, many of whom were experiencing just the first or second code of their career. Delayed action, lack of clarity surrounding task responsibility, and other errors were apparent. As a result of this experience, we believed the unit would greatly benefit from enhanced knowledge and training on handling codes to better prepare for future emergency situations.

  Code blue events present challenges such as: forming teams, delegating responsibilities, decreased confidence in skills, limited knowledge of necessary roles, and poor communication (Walsh et al., 2021). A study by Hammontree and Kinderknecht (2022) addressed similar issues by implementing a mock code program to address gaps in knowledge and skill. In their study, many nurses reported having little experience in resuscitation, much like our unit staff. Another study developed a team-based CPR education plan, which included a document detailing the CPR process and specifying roles and tasks for each phase. This approach successfully improved teamwork and the quality of resuscitation (Xu et. al, 2022.)

  Inspired by these studies, we created an infographic summarizing the Corewell Health "Code Blue Review", a PowerPoint presentation outlining roles and responsibilities during a code blue. By increasing staff knowledge through a targeted code blue training review, we hoped to ensure that future code blue events will be handled in a more coordinated and efficient manner, ultimately improving patient safety.

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  Hypertension Follow Up Appointments for Postpartum Patients

  Audrey Kalasky, Kristen Maki, and Meghan Van den Boogaart

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are among the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. The rate of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy has been increasing from approximately 500 cases per 10,000 deliveries in 1993 to 1021 cases per 10,000 deliveries in 2017. The Michigan Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (MI AIM) is dedicated to improving the culture of maternal safety by decreasing preventable severe maternal morbidity and mortality through the implementation of early recognition patient safety bundles. These evidence-based guidelines offer clinical and non-clinical staff resources aimed at improving clinical care processes and patient outcomes. The patient safety bundles help fully equip hospitals with actionable protocols, necessary equipment, staff education, and staff drills to prevent and adequately treat these severe maternal events.

  For this project, a mother-baby care Registered Nurse (MBC RN) took initiative to work with the education team to assist with design and implementation of evidence-based education to fellow nurses regarding patients making follow up appointments when hypertension is present/diagnosed/treated during their hospital stay (for delivery). This is a metric that MIAIM desires a level of 80% compliance for patients having follow up appointments on a 3 or 7 day basis, depending on their hypertension diagnosis with or without severe range blood pressure noted during their hospital stay. It has been shown that having these follow up appointments made prior to discharge can decrease poor outcomes or life altering outcomes, for these recently delivered people. Prior to the intervention, the maternal-child care areas were below meeting the metric. This being the driver for this education initiative coming from the nursing standpoint. Nurses are a major source for discharge education on the MBC unit. Hence, being alert to anticipated discharge day, having the patient call the office on a business day to make the follow up appointment before leaving, and educating patients can the importance of this follow up is an example of nursing empowerment.

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  Frequent Incentive Spirometer Use in Med-Surg unit

  Aya Ko and Trisha Saha

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Incentive Spirometer use has shown to improve lung ventilation, prevent Pneumonia and other post op respiratory complications. The use of IS in inspiratory muscle training has been shown to maintain and increase inhaled lung volume. It is perceived that patients are not very compliant with performing IS post-operatively. Intermittent reassessment of patient performance after initial instruction is recommended.

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  Rebuilding the Nursing Team on a Medical Unit Part 2: Retention and Recognition

  Christina Maciborski, Sally Witt, and Monica Oliveira-Permaloff

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  • The 6 North West Medical Progressive Care Unit (6NW MPCU) faced significant staffing challenges after the height of the pandemic. Between April 2023 and April 2024, the unit leadership team used multifaceted strategies to address staffing challenges and successfully decreased the Functional Vacancy Rate from 70.4% to 40.2%.
  • Newly graduated nurses may experience “Transition Shock” as they leave the student nurse role and enter professional practice. Transition shock may be associated with feelings of doubt, loss, confusion, and disorientation2
  • The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) endorses 6 standards to promote healthy work environments which include: Skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership1
  • The aim of this project was to utilize a variety of creative and engaging approaches to address RN retention, and to maintain a decreased functional vacancy rate in the medical progressive care unit

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  White Noise: A Potential Intervention in Preventing Delirium

  Samantha Madziar, Trevor Beerer, Alaina Beshi, Miranda Berishaj, Nicholas Elgert, Kayla Goisdzinski, Heba Karmo, Chloe Konopitski, Courtney Pichette, Jennifer Richard, and Randy Rofa

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Delirium is a fluctuating mental status impairment that causes disrupted attention and confusion. Delirium can develop over a short period of time and is associated with increased length of hospital stay, mortality, and long-term cognitive impairments. The incidence of delirium in surgical intensive care patients is approximately 70%. CAM-ICU assessments are done every shift on 5E SICU to assess a patient’s risk for delirium. Care goals to reduce delirium emphasize good sleep hygiene. Our project looked at the effect of white noise on SICU patients sleep cycles and how the intervention effected delirium scores.

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  Implementation of RN and NA Checkpoints to Improve Patient Safety

  Dali Majeed, Kristine Heeger, Nancy Vedolich, Nancy Varghese, Rose Karthanal, Sonia San Mateo, Rachel Easton, Kathy Djuravcevic, Susan Abraham, Patricia Navarro-Evanick, Virgina Crile, Merlin Sinjo, Rebekah Arnold, and Nav Singh

  Publication Date: 5-2025

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  Skin-to-Skin Contact and Thermoregulation in Newborns

  Kristen Maki, Renna Sandas, Ashley Bader, and Sophie Formanek

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Implementing skin-to-skin contact (SSC) post-delivery is essential for newborn temperature regulation. Newborns have a reduced capacity for generating heat, which leads to decreased temperatures. Implementing SSC allows heat to be transferred from mother to infant, therefore regulating newborn temperatures. This evidence-based project (EBP) focuses on initiating SSC to determine its effectiveness in maintaining temperatures above 36.5 degrees Celsius. The research question being: In newborn infants, does SSC compared to the absence of SSC improve thermoregulation?

  SSC is defined as placing a naked infant with a diaper and/or hat on its mother's bare skin, covered with a blanket (Moore-ER et al., 2016). Baby friendly hospitals recommend SSC post-delivery for at least one hour ("the golden hour") to prevent hypothermia, improve blood glucose, promote comfort, and reduce morbidity rates (Safari et al., 2018). Thermostability is the capacity to maintain a body temperature between 36.5 and 37.4 degrees Celsius (Lode-Kolz et al., 2023). SSC facilitates thermoregulation by activating the infant's sensory nerves and sending information to the central nervous system, which permits an increase in body temperature (Safari et al., 2018).

  Skin to skin contact not only benefits thermoregulation as a baby transitions to extrauterine life, but it can allow for better physiological adjustment and transition overall for the newborn. There have also been associations with decreased sudden unexplained incidences of newborn death and infant mortality. SSC also improves breastfeeding experiences and longevity, as well as birth satisfaction. Finally, there are many benefits to the mother including shorter 3rd stage of labor (birth to placenta delivery time), uterine contraction immediately after birth, and reduces postpartum hemorrhage incidence (Brimdyr et al., 2023).

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  Healing the Healer: A Pathway Forward in the Medical Observation Unit (MOU)

  Jasmine Marlow and Richard Werner

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Nursing is a profession that encounters extensive demands, especially the Medical Observation Unit (MOU), where there is a high turnover rate of patients and nurses daily care for a wide variety of patient diagnoses. Burnout is a state of emotional and possible physical exhaustion because of the frequent stress that healthcare workers experience. The following presentation reflects on how nurses working on a fast-paced unit which has a high patient turnover rate leads to increased role expectations causing quicker burnout. Burnout can disrupt our nurse-patient relationships, aiding to decreased outcomes. By the end of this presentation, you will see what can help slow down or prevent nursing burnout on such a unit. Keeping our nurses’ minds and bodies healthy to fulfill the job, as an exceptional nurse, is a number one priority for our patients receiving care.

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  5 North RN Class: Clinic in the Classroom

  Laura McWhirter

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Newly hired nurses on 5 Northeast and 5 Northwest medical-surgical units attend an introductory 5 North RN class, which has been held quarterly for 15 years, to enhance nursing knowledge of the patient population for which they will be caring. Traditionally, the class was 8 hours in length with seven advanced practitioner speakers who reviewed patient specific care, followed by a simulation lab experience of an interactive mega code. During the 5 North RN class last quarter, the nurse professional development generalist (NPDG) received evaluations with requests from nurses to have more handson education to assist with increased learning and engagement of the nurses.

  This project aimed to address the nurses' evaluation results and request for increased hands-on experiences within the class. Education is better received when multiple modalities of education are provided. Multiple education modalities can improve learning by engaging learners, collaborating with others, engaging in hands-on skills, enhancing muscle memory, and facilitating a team approach to care. Interactive education can also improve the application of critical thinking of a new nurse by building off their base knowledge and encouraging self-efficacy (Bautista & Bartos, 2019).

  For new nurses coming into healthcare, involving themselves in a team approach to patient care is often difficult. With stronger collaboration between multidisciplinary teams, patient outcomes have the potential to soar. Introducing new nurses to the advanced practitioner speakers can help bring comfort and understanding to these disciplines' expectations for nursing. This allows for increased clarity of expectations and easier collaboration when the practitioners are visible on the unit. Collaboration aids in decreasing burnout by creating a relaxed work environment, improved morale of healthcare team, increases job satisfaction and decreases staff turnover (Ghattas & Abdou, 2025).

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  Improving Substance Use Disorder Care in the Emergency Department through Process Changes and Education

  Tiffany Morelli and Cynthia Seferian

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital emergency department is a Level II trauma center that had an annual volume of 108,311 in 2023. In 2023 our team was consulted on 570 opioid use disorder (OUD) patients, provided 371 free take-home intranasal Narcan Kits, and connected 237 of them. In 2022, we saw 531 OUD patients, provided 311 free take-home intranasal Narcan Kits, and connected 271 of them. In July of 2022 we started to track patients here for other substances outside of OUD. This added an additional 1,956 patients to our consult list for 2022 and 2023. Our program was initiated in 2019, as we identified a need for additional resources for this population. We currently have a team that consists of an ER Physician, APP, and 3 RNs. We see patients 6 days a week, from 7am-7pm. This program is currently funded through a grant. Our goal is to identify, treat and connect with resources those at risk for or suffering from OUD/SUD. We also focus on educating our staff on decreasing the stigma associated with addiction. We provide free Narcan Kits, and offer initiation of medication assisted treatment (MAT).

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  The Utilization of a Reference Guide to Promote Nurse Confidence in Providing Parental Education About Nirsevimab Vaccine

  Julia Nowak, Allison A. Drabek, Taylor Killich, and Audrey Kalasky

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  In July 2023, the FDA approved Nirsevimab (Beyfortus), a monoclonal antibody that provides direct protection to infants against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a dangerous respiratory virus that is the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States (CDC, 2024). During RSV season (November 1- March 31), Nirsevimab is ordered before the infant is discharged. Parents often have questions about Nirsevimab that they direct to the bedside RN.

  The purpose of this evidence-based project was to inquire if a nursing gap in knowledge existed in providing parental education on Nirsevimab based on the novelty of this vaccine. Would a comprehensive evidence-based reference guide regarding RSV and Nirsevimab (Beyfortus), compared to vaccination instructions alone, improve confidence in providing parental education?

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  The Effect of the Adoption of the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer Process on Compliance Standards at A Single Institution

  Garrett W. Peters, Gregory Thomas, Jacob A. Applegarth, Forrest Bohler, Shelli Bergeron, and Harry J. Wasvary

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  • The National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC) was developed to decrease variability and increase a multidisciplinary approach among rectal cancer care.

  • There is considerable variability among institutions in compliance with the “Patient Care: Expectations and Protocols” standards, and it is unclear how compliance changes once an institution undergoes the accreditation process.

  • Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital (formerly Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak) is a large-volume institution that adopted the NAPRC process into clinical practice starting in August 2019.

  • In this study, we evaluate institutional compliance before and after NAPRC accreditation adoption was undertaken.

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  “ACE-ING Communication”

  Mary Royse, Ester Joyce Szmyd, and Robert E. Lingerfelt

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  The patient experience is an important aspect of healthcare delivery, and it involves a variety of elements that influence a patient’s perception of the care that was provided to them. Specifically, the patient experience centers on if specific aspects of care occurred such as the quality of interactions between the patients and doctors, nurses and ancillary staff. Healthcare systems have recognized the importance of providing a positive patient experience which can lead to improved clinical outcomes, enhanced patient safety, improved care coordination and positive financial outcomes for the healthcare system. The 9 North Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE) unit embarked on a process to improve communication between the patients/family and nurses to positively impact the patient experience.

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  Using Visual Aids to Increase Compliance of Capping and Clamping IVs

  Benjamin Rush, Cassidy Wagner, and Alexus Winkowski

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  Hospitalized patients are treated for the illness that brought them in. However, how many times have you heard of your patients being treated for a hospital-acquired infection, such as a bloodstream infection, or have had a patient lose their IV very quickly? Every patient that comes into the hospital to be treated gets an IV catheter placed and improper care, such as not capping and clamping your lines, can result in infections in the blood stream, sepsis, clotted lines, and the IV becoming infiltrated. If we can get nurses in the habit of capping and clamping every IV catheter after use, we can help prevent these extra illness patients keep seeing and decrease hospitalization and length of stay. Flushing and clamping an IV line helps maintain patency of an IV catheter when it is not in use. Research has shown that flushing the IV with at least 10ml of normal saline is vital in preventing malfunction (Gossens, 2015). The use of a disinfecting cap, according to Hou et al. (2023), has a reduction of infection by 73%, along with a 0.5-day reduction in length of hospital stay. To promote the use of capping and clamping IVs, we proposed the use of visual aid reminders, similarly to what has been done for handwashing (Wearn et al., 2015). According to this study, the use of visual aid reminders increased compliance in handwashing, thus supporting the possibility of visual aids in increasing compliance in capping and clamping IVs.

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  How A Novel Data Collection Approach Can Improve CTMU Alarm Acceptance

  Damian Tomasik, Mary Royse, and Ban Haweel

  Publication Date: 5-2025

  The increasing use of digital technologies is changing healthcare professional’s activities, especially as it relates to patient quality data. Technologies that supply large amounts of data, that can be used to extract knowledge, can support nurses’ decision-making process and ultimately improve the quality of healthcare services. One such example is the regional database housing the Central Telemetry Monitoring Unit (CTMU) data. This enormous database provides valuable information on the number of CTMU alarms that are accepted by unit and individual caregiver in the east region of Corewell Health. To improve the CTMU alarm acceptance rate on 9 North Medical, a plan was put into place, utilizing technology, for nurses to better understand the overall process.