The Effect of Using a Normothermia Checklist on Awakening Time From Anesthesia and Coagulation Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Inadvertent perioperative hypothermia (IPH) is a common issue in surgical patients. To avoid this issue, the patient should be monitored continuously throughout the perioperative process. Evidence-based practices in line with relevant guidelines are necessary to maintain normothermia.

PURPOSE

This study was developed to determine the effect of using a control list developed for preventing IPH on time of awakening from anesthesia and coagulation disorder in surgical patients.

METHODS

In this randomized controlled study, nursing interventions were applied to patients in accordance with the normothermia checklist (NC) developed by the researchers to prevent IPH.

RESULTS

In this study, 30 patients were respectively assigned to the experimental and control groups. Conducting nursing interventions in accordance with the control checklist was found to be effective in preventing IPH. Moreover, time of awakening from anesthesia was significantly shorter in the experimental group (3.77 ± 1.10 minutes) than the control group (11.03 ± 2.51 minutes; p < .05). Furthermore, tendency to bleed was higher in the control group than the experimental group, and a statistically significant between-group difference in coagulation disorders was found ( p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The results of this evidence-based study indicate that implementing nursing interventions in line with the developed NC is effective in preventing IPH. Preventing IPH, which increases the risk of numerous complications in surgical patients, is an important responsibility of nurses. Nurses may employ the NC proposed in this study to better secure the safety and minimize the risk of complications in surgical patients.

The Development of the Inadvertent Perioperative Hypothermia Knowledge Test (IPH-KT)

PURPOSE

This study aimed to develop the inadvertent perioperative hypothermia knowledge test (IPH-KT) for health care professionals and examine its validity and reliability.

DESIGN

The methodological and cross-sectional study design was used.

METHODS

The research was carried out with 326 nursing students in Turkey. Data for the study were collected using a demographic information form and the IPH-KT.

FINDINGS

The item difficulty index and item distinctiveness index of the questions included in the draft form of the 25-item test ranged from 0.03 to 0.81 and from 0.25 to 0.99, respectively. After the analyses, 8 items were excluded from the draft test, and the final version of the test consisted of 17 questions. The item difficulty index of the final test ranged from 0.30 to 0.96, and the item distinctiveness index ranged from 0.33 to 0.81. The reliability of the test was determined using the Kuder-Richardson formula 20 and found to be 0.72, indicating high internal consistency. Therefore, the IPH-KT was accepted as a reliable test.

CONCLUSIONS

The study revealed that the questions in the IPH-KT had varying difficulty levels and a high ability to discriminate between individuals with knowledge of IPH and those without. The results demonstrated that the test had good content and face validity and showed high reliability for measuring the IPH knowledge of nursing students.