Managing the patient with a chest drain: a review

Paediatric chest drains: past, present and percutaneous

The authors present a review of the pathophysiology of pneumothoraces, the indications and the procedures required for the insertion of chest drains, and review paediatric practice using the recently developed Seldinger-style percutaneous chest drains.

The need for nurses to have in service education to provide the best care for clients with chest drains

Chest drains are a widespread intervention for patients admitted to acute respiratory or cardiothoracic surgery care areas. These are either inserted intraoperatively or as part of the conservative management of a respiratory illness or thoracic injury. Anecdotally there appears to be a lack of consensus among nurses on the major principles of chest drain management. Many decisions tend to be based on personal factors rather than sound clinical evidence. This inconsistency of treatment regimes, together with the lack of evidence-based nursing care, creates a general uncertainty regarding the care of patients with chest drains. This study aimed to identify the nurses' levels of knowledge with regard to chest drain management and identify and to ascertain how nurses keep informed about the developments related to the care of patients with chest drains. The data were collected using survey method. The results of the study revealed deficits in knowledge in a selected group of nurses and a paucity of resources. Nurse managers are encouraged to identify educational needs in this area, improve resources and the delivery of in service and web-based education and to encourage nurses to reflect upon their own knowledge deficits through portfolio use and ongoing professional development.

Nurses’ knowledge of chest drain care: an exploratory descriptive survey

Chest drains are a common feature of patients admitted to acute respiratory or cardio-thoracic surgery care areas. Chest drains are either inserted intraoperatively or as part of the conservative management of a respiratory illness or thoracic injury. Anecdotally, there appears to be a lack of consensus among nurses on the major principles of chest drain management. Many decisions tend to be based on personal factors rather than sound clinical evidence. This inconsistency of treatment regimes, together with the lack of evidence-based nursing care, creates a general uncertainty regarding the care of patients with chest drains. This study aimed to identify the nurses' levels of knowledge with regard to chest drain management. The research objective of this study was to describe the nurses' levels of knowledge regarding the care of the patient with chest drains. The data were collected using survey method. The results of the study revealed deficits in knowledge in a select group of nurses. Several service-led options exist with regard to improving knowledge in this area, such as service study days as well as ward-based tutorials. However, in an era of increasing accountability together with the impetus for each nurse to provide evidence-based care, it is crucial for individual nurse responsibility in the pursuit of knowledge in this area. Nurses must be supported by local practice development and through personal portfolio use to identify gaps in knowledge and seek appropriate training and resources.

Finding evidence: refining literature searching skills for the advanced practice nurse

With increasing interest in evidence-based healthcare, nurses are finding the need to improve skills in locating current, valid evidence to support clinical practice. Because of the holistic nature of nursing, gathering evidence requires searching a variety of sources within many different scientific disciplines. The diverse nature of this task requires effective skills for finding information from both print and electronic sources. This article identifies informational databases available to advanced practice nurses, reviews search terminology, and suggests practical strategies for successful database searches in support of evidence-based practice.