Abstract
Despite advances in hospital ECG monitoring technology, monitoring practices are inconsistent and often inadequate. We recently developed practice standards for ECG monitoring (Drew, Califf, Funk et al., 2004) and submitted a proposal for a multi-site randomized clinical trial (M. Funk -Principal Investigator) to the National Institutes of Health to test the effect of these standards on nurses' knowledge and skills, quality of care, and patient outcomes. Part of the intervention in this trial is a computer-based ECG monitoring education program for nurses working on monitored hospital units. The purpose of the clinical demonstration project proposed in this application to the Beatrice Renfield -Yale School of Nursing Clinical Research Initiative Fund is to develop, evaluate, and revise the computer-based ECG monitoring education program that will be used in this trial. The content of this computer-based program and the knowledge tests will be developed by the investigator (M. Funk) in consultation with Dr. Barbara Drew and with the help of a Research Associate. The Web Design and Development section of the Information Technology Service at the Yale University School of Medicine has agreed to convert the ECG monitoring content that is developed into a computer-based program. The initial version will be tested by nurses in monitored units serving cardiac patients at Danbury Hospital (Danbury, CT) and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (San Francisco, CA). After finishing the educational program and the tests, nurses will complete an evaluation that will include items addressing such issues as time involved in completing the modules and taking the tests, ease of use, difficulty of tests, and clarity of content. The computer-based education program will then be revised accordingly. All nurses working on hospital units with ECG monitoring may potentially benefit from the computer-based ECG education program developed in this clinical demonstration project. It will be made available on the Web sites of the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Abstracts for presentation at regional and national nursing meetings will be submitted and a manuscript prepared for publication in a clinical joumal.
|
|
|
