Educating nurses about correct application of cricoid pressure.
ALTHOUGH THE APPLICATION of cricoid pressure is a technique that is performed almost daily in the OR, perioperative nurses may not be applying cricoid pressure correctly. THE PURPOSE of this quality improvement project was to develop an education program to assess perioperative nurses' skills and educate and train them regarding correct application of cricoid pressure. OF 51 PERIOPERATIVE NURSES who participated in a pretest, an education program, and a posttest, the number of participants who could apply the appropriate amount of pressure to the correct location increased from two (3.9%) on the pretest to 35 (68.6%) on the posttest.
Patten
Stephen P
SP
Operative Care Division, VA Medical Center, Portland, Ore, USA.
D003413:Cricoid Cartilage; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal / Q000451:nursing*; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000193:education*; D011015:Pneumonia, Aspiration / Q000517:prevention & control; D011312:Pressure; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013664:Teaching Materials; D014481:United States