Structured Documentation of Home Ventilator Settings in Children: A Quality Improvement Project.
In children requiring long-term mechanical ventilation (LTMV), insufficient admission charting can lead to adverse events. Our purpose in this study was to create and evaluate a structured documentation tool of home LTMV settings to improve communication, documentation, and patient safety.



This study used a pretest-posttest survey of pulmonary unit nurses' satisfaction with the tool and perceptions of patient safety, chart reviews of documentation compliance, and reports of education session attendance. Mann-Whitney U and Fisher exact tests, category analyses, and descriptive statistics were applied.



Nurses' reports of positive communication of LTMV settings increased from 54.5% to 100% (p = .002), overall satisfaction with associated documentation increased (p < .001), and witnessed related adverse events decreased from 50% to 18.75%. Nurse compliance for education attendance and documentation was 97.4% and 97.3%, respectively.



Structured admission charting of LTMV settings should be continued and yielded improvements in pulmonary unit nurses' perceptions of communication, patient safety, and documentation compliance.
Michelle K
MK
Joyner
Folashade C
FC
Afolabi
Tessa L
TL
Payne
Rémi M
RM
Hueckel
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003422:Critical Care; D004282:Documentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D064701:Pediatric Nurse Practitioners; D010865:Pilot Projects; D058996:Quality Improvement; D013781:Texas; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical
Ventilator; communication; quality improvement; safety; structured documentation