Establishing an audit system for Air Evac.
Because of JCAH requirements and nursing's progression toward self-evaluation, most fixed facilities have established audit systems to determine the effectiveness of nursing intervention. Due to the transient nature of the Aeromedical Evacuation System, there was no method of evaluating the patient's care inflight. Many obstacles had to be overcome in establishing a method of evaluation; and these problems are discussed by the researchers. A pilot project was formulated to determine the validity of our audit tool. Then, 99 patients' charts were audited over a four-month period. From this data, many deficiencies in the continuity of patient care and the patient's lack of understanding concerning our system became evident. The implications of this study are far reaching and will lead to further research in the future. By disseminating these results to various hospitals, we hope to see significant improvement in patient preparation in the near future.
D000401:Aircraft; D006801:Humans; D008888:Military Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D009731:Nursing Audit / Q000379:methods*; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000592:standards*