NL
The annual nursing congress Over de Bogen took place recently. During that congress, Ingrid Heijnen received the Maas Implementation Award from dr. Maud Heinen of IQ Health. This prize is awarded for a change initiated by a professional that leads to an innovation in practice. Ingrid received the award for the Lemonade Project: in that project, the long-standing guideline regarding pre-operative drinking was systematically implemented at the Orthopedics Nursing Department of the Radboudumc.
Harm van Noort has shown in previous research that ninety percent of elective surgery patients are sober 3 times longer than (inter)national guidelines indicate, which affects comfort and postoperative recovery. A multidisciplinary project group (anesthesiologist, orthopedist, nurse practitioner, secretary and nurse scientist) was established in the Orthopedics Nursing Department to better implement the advice to drink up to 2 hours before the scheduled surgery time.
All steps of Grol & Wensing's implementation model were gone through with involved professionals and patients. After a pre-measurement, influencing factors were identified, implementation strategies developed and implemented. Patients are now offered a glass of lemonade upon admission to the nursing ward before surgery by the secretaries who admit patients 2 hours before the scheduled surgery time.
After this implementation, patients are sober for over 5 hours shorter (from an average of 8 hours to 2:45), experience less thirst and the process is safe. A great success because the guideline has been around for over 20 years, but implementation remains a challenge!
This research by Ingrid Heijnen and Harm van Noort is part of Dr. Getty Huisman - de Waal's line of research at IQ Health, see Allied health & nursing sciences - O&O-groep - IQ Health.