Implementation of a hospital-wide multidisciplinary blunt chest injury care bundle (ChIP): Fidelity of delivery evaluation

Education interventions and emergency nurses' clinical practice behaviours: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Many education interventions in emergency nursing are aimed at changing nurse behaviours. This scoping review describes and synthesises the published research education interventions and emergency nurses' clinical practice behaviours.

METHODS

Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework guided this review, which is reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). CINAHL, MEDLINE complete, ERIC, and Psycinfo were searched on 3 August 2023. Two pairs of researchers independently conducted all screening. Synthesis was guided by the Behaviour Change Wheel and Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

RESULTS

Twenty-five studies were included. Educational interventions had largely positive effects on emergency nurses' clinical practice behaviours. Ten different interventions were identified, the most common was education sessions (n = 24). Seven studies reported underpinning theoretical frameworks. Of the essential elements of behaviour change, seven interventions addressed capability, four addressed motivation and one addressed opportunity. Mapping against Bloom's taxonomy, thirteen studies addressed analysis, eleven studies addressed synthesis and two studies addressed evaluation.

CONCLUSION

Few studies addressed elements of behaviour change theory or targeted cognitive domains. Future studies should focus on controlled designs, and more rigorous reporting of the education intervention(s) tested, and theoretical underpinning for intervention(s) selected.

A Cold Chain-Independent Specimen Collection and Transport Medium Improves Diagnostic Sensitivity and Minimizes Biosafety Challenges of COVID-19 Molecular Diagnosis

Equitable and timely access to COVID-19-related care has emerged as a major challenge, especially in developing and low-income countries. In India, ∼65% of the population lives in villages where infrastructural constraints limit the access to molecular diagnostics of COVID-19 infection. Especially, the requirement of a cold chain transport for sustained sample integrity and associated biosafety challenges pose major bottlenecks to the equitable access. Here, we developed an innovative clinical specimen collection medium, named SupraSens microbial transport medium (SSTM). SSTM allowed a cold chain-independent transport at a wide temperature range (15°C to 40°C) and directly inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (<15 min). Evaluation of SSTM compared to commercial viral transport medium (VTM) in field studies (n = 181 patients) highlighted that, for the samples from same patients, SSTM could capture more symptomatic (∼26.67%, 4/15) and asymptomatic (52.63%, 10/19) COVID-19 patients. Compared to VTM, SSTM yielded significantly lower quantitative PCR (qPCR) threshold cycle (Ct) values (mean ΔCt > -3.50), thereby improving diagnostic sensitivity of SSTM (18.79% [34/181]) versus that of VTM (11.05% [20/181]). Overall, SSTM had detection of COVID-19 patients 70% higher than that of VTM. Since the logistical and infrastructural constraints are not unique to India, our study highlights the invaluable global utility of SSTM as a key to accurately identify those infected and control COVID-19 transmission. Taken together, our data provide a strong justification to the adoption of SSTM for sample collection and transport during the pandemic. IMPORTANCE Approximately forty-four percent of the global population lives in villages, including 59% in Africa (https://unhabitat.org/World%20Cities%20Report%202020). The fast-evolving nature of SARS-CoV-2 and its extremely contagious nature warrant early and accurate COVID-19 diagnostics across rural and urban population as a key to prevent viral transmission. Unfortunately, lack of adequate infrastructure, including the availability of biosafety-compliant facilities and an end-to-end cold chain availability for COVID-19 molecular diagnosis, limits the accessibility of testing in these countries. Here, we fulfill this urgent unmet need by developing a sample collection and transport medium, SSTM, that does not require cold chain, neutralizes the virus quickly, and maintains the sample integrity at broad temperature range without compromising sensitivity. Further, we observed that use of SSTM in field studies during pandemic improved the diagnostic sensitivity, thereby establishing the feasibility of molecular testing even in the infrastructural constraints of remote, hilly, or rural communities in India and elsewhere.

Impact of a care bundle for patients with blunt chest injury (ChIP): A multicentre controlled implementation evaluation

Background

Blunt chest injury leads to significant morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a multidisciplinary chest injury care bundle (ChIP) on patient and health service outcomes. ChIP provides guidance in three key pillars of care for blunt chest injury—respiratory support, analgesia and complication prevention. ChIP was implemented using a multi-faceted implementation plan developed using the Behaviour Change Wheel.

Methods

This controlled pre-and post-test study (two intervention and two non-intervention sites) was conducted from July 2015 to June 2019. The primary outcome measures were unplanned Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions, non-invasive ventilation use and mortality.

Results

There were 1790 patients included. The intervention sites had a 58% decrease in non-invasive ventilation use in the post- period compared to the pre-period (95% CI 0.18–0.96). ChIP was associated with 90% decreased odds of unplanned ICU admissions (95% CI 0.04–0.29) at the intervention sites compared to the control groups in the post- period. There was no significant change in mortality. There were higher odds of health service team reviews (surgical OR 6.6 (95% CI 4.61–9.45), physiotherapy OR 2.17 (95% CI 1.52–3.11), ICU doctor OR 6.13 (95% CI 3.94–9.55), ICU liaison OR 55.75 (95% CI 17.48–177.75), pain team OR 8.15 (95% CI 5.52 –-12.03), analgesia (e.g. patient controlled analgesia OR 2.6 (95% CI 1.64–3.94) and regional analgesia OR 8.8 (95% CI 3.39–22.79), incentive spirometry OR 8.3 (95% CI 4.49–15.37) and, high flow nasal oxygen OR 22.1 (95% CI 12.43–39.2) in the intervention group compared to the control group in the post- period.

Conclusion

The implementation of a chest injury care bundle using behaviour change theory was associated with a sustained improvement in evidence-based practice resulting in reduced unplanned ICU admissions and non-invasive ventilation requirement.

Trial registration

ANZCTR: ACTRN12618001548224, approved 17/09/2018

Implementation strategy fidelity evaluation for a multidisciplinary Chest Injury Protocol (ChIP)

Background

Blunt chest wall injuries can lead to complications, especially without early intervention. A blunt Chest Injury Protocol (ChIP) was developed to help improve the consistency of evidence-based care following admission to the emergency department. Implementation strategy fidelity is the extent to which the strategies of implementation are delivered in line with the intended plan. The aim of this study was to assess fidelity to the strategies of the implementation plan developed for ChIP.

Methods

A retrospective evaluation of strategies used for implementation was performed, specifically the behaviour change techniques (BCTs). BCTs were used as part of an implementation plan derived based on the Behaviour Change Wheel from results from a staff survey at two hospitals.

Levels of implementation or adaptation for BCTs were scored by implementers as follows: ‘Were the behaviour change interventions implemented?’ (0 = ‘not implemented’, 1 = partially implemented, and 2 = fully implemented); ‘Were adaptations made to the implementation plan?’, scored 1 (many changes from plan) to 4 (just as planned). Free text explanation to their responses was also collected with supporting evidence and documentation (such as emails, implementation checklists, audit reports, and incident reports).

Results

There was high overall fidelity of 97.6% for BCTs partially or fully implemented. More than three quarters (32/42, 76.2%) of the BCTs were fully implemented with an additional 9/42 (21.4%) partially implemented. BCTs that were not fully implemented were social support, feedback on behaviour, feedback on outcomes of behaviour, adding objects to the environment, and restructuring the environment. The modes of delivery with poorer implementation or increased adaptations were clinical champions and audit/feedback.

Conclusions

This study describes the evaluation of implementation strategy fidelity in the acute care context. The systematic use and application of the behaviour change wheel was used to develop an implementation plan and was associated with high implementation strategy fidelity. A fidelity checklist developed during the implementation process may help implementers assess fidelity.

Trial registration

Trial registered on ANZCTR. Registration number ACTRN12618001548224, date approved 17/09/2018

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43058-021-00189-8.