Evidence-Based Practice

Evidence-Based Practice

Intervention Skill/Intervention: Bedside Care and Assistance

Bedside care and assistance is a skills used by nurses to provide care to patients in the hospital. The nurse’s role is to provide basic needs to the patient. The nurse provides bedside care by ensuring that the patient has proper medication and food intake. The nurse can also monitor the patient’s vital signs such as blood pressure, pulse rate, and temperature. Nursing assistants assist the nurses in providing bedside care by helping with simple tasks such as dressing wounds, changing linens on beds, transferring patients from one place to another, and other similar tasks that require physical strength but not much medical knowledge or experience. Bedside care is needed when patients cannot perform activities independently because of health problems or disability (Singh et al., 2021). These patients may be recovering from surgery, have chronic illnesses such as diabetes, or have physical limitations due to age or injury. Bedside care helps keep these patients comfortable, safe, and healthy while recovering at home. Bedside care and assistance increase the quality of life for your client by allowing them the opportunity to take part in their daily routine and maintain a sense of independence within their home environment.

This study aimed to develop an immersive virtual reality (VR) medication administration scenario using the nominal group technique (NGT). The participants were selected based on their work experience as pharmacists and nurses. The participants were 23 nursing students from a university in the Southwestern United States. The results showed that NGT is a useful approach to elicit evidence-based recommendations for use by all healthcare providers in the US who administer medications to patients (Rossler, Sankaranarayanan, and Hurutado, 2021). This study also demonstrated that VR could be a learning tool for nursing and pharmacy program students to reinforce clinical skills learned during training. The results of this study affect nursing care in the US today by allowing nurses to practice administering medications without harming patients or themselves. It also allows them to improve their skills before administering any drugs on their own, which can save lives and make sure that everyone gets the proper amount of care they need.

National Patient Safety Goal 2020: “Reduce medication errors.”

The nursing intervention of bedside care and assistance meets this goal because it promotes safe medication administration, which helps prevent medication errors. Bedside care involves assisting with activities of daily living for patients with disabilities and impairments who may be temporarily or permanently unable to care for themselves ( assistance when bathing or dressing). In addition, bedside care may include basic nursing assessments such as vital signs (temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure) and physical examination findings (skin color or lesions)  (Rezende et al., 2021). This nursing intervention helps prevent medication errors by ensuring that nurses are present to provide assistance and teach patients how to take their medications correctly.

Appraisal of the Evidence

The authors used a non-randomized design to evaluate their hypothesis that an immersive virtual reality (IVR) medication administration scenario reduces errors in simulated medication administration tasks. The authors also applied the nominal group technique (NGT) to assign participants to three groups: control group (CG) who received traditional instruction; IVR group (IVRG) who received traditional instruction plus an IVR training session; and IVR + NGT group (IVRNGTG) who received traditional instruction plus an IVR training session and then were randomly assigned to one of four groups depending on their performance on a pre-test: Group 1 – placebo group; Group 2 – placebo + placebo group; Group 3 – placebo + nocebo group; or Group 4 – placebo + nocebo + nocebo group. The authors found significant differences between groups regarding accuracy on the post-test but not on the pre-test: CG = 55%; IVRG = 66%; IVRNGTG = 73% (Rossler, Sankaranarayanan, and Hurutado, 2021).

Results of the Study

The results showed no significant difference between pre-and post-training scores for state anxiety or trait anxiety. However, there was a significant decrease in perceived control from pre- to post-training. There was no significant difference between the two groups’ scores for social desirability; however, there was a significant increase in social desirability from pre- to post-training for both groups combined (p<0.05). The results showed that participants found it easier to administer medications when using VR technology than when using traditional methods (Rossler, Sankaranarayanan, and Hurutado, 2021). Findings suggest that incorporating VR into medication administration could increase patient safety and decrease errors associated with traditional methods such as paper-based or computer-based training tools. However, the results were not valid because there was no control group and no randomization of participants. The study was not designed well. The results do not appear to help care for patients because they did not provide any new data about how people would react or respond to this type of scenario in real-life situations.205788 254747085101

Summary of Intervention and Application

Bedside care is the provision of care to patients by nurses. It is an essential nursing component and can be used as a skill during an intervention. The nurse may utilize bedside care while performing assessments, administering medications, or educating patients on their condition. The outcome of this intervention is that it helps the nurses to provide better quality care for their patients by providing them with a safe and comfortable environment (Rezende et al., 2021). Another outcome is increased self-esteem, enhanced quality of life, and improved social relationships. The application in nursing today is to provide bedside care and assistance. This includes but is not limited to:

• Changing linens and sheets

• Changing dressings and bandages

• Giving medications, injections, or intravenous fluids

• Monitoring vital signs such as pulse, blood pressure, and temperature

• Assessing for pain using the Numeric Pain Scale (NPS) or other pain assessment tools. 

References

Singh, J., Green, M. B., Lindblom, S., Reif, M. S., Thakkar, N. P., & Papali, A. (2021). Telecritical cares clinical and operational strategies in response to COVID-19. Telemedicine and e-Health, 27(3), 261-268.

Rezende, L. C., Vilela, G. D. S., Caram, C. D. S., Caçador, B. S., & Brito, M. J. M. (2021). Bedside nurses’ care model: challenges and perspectives for an innovative practice. Revista Gaúcha de Enfermagem, 42.

Rossler, K. L., Sankaranarayanan, G., & Hurutado, M. H. (2021). Developing an immersive virtual reality medication administration scenario using the nominal group technique. Nurse Education in Practice, 56, 103191.