A Quality Improvement Project to Improve Education Provided by Nurses to ED Patients Prescribed Opioid Analgesics at Discharge

Publication date: July 2018Source: Journal of Emergency Nursing, Volume 44, Issue 4Author(s): Daria L. Waszak, Ann M. Mitchell, Dianxu Ren, Laura A. FennimoreAbstractBackgroundThe opioid crisis continues to take an unprecedented number of lives and is the top cause of injury death in the United States. The emergency department is a setting where patients with pain seek care and may be prescribed an opioid, yet many patients do not receive evidence-based education about taking their opioid safely. Like many communities across the country, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has experienced an increased rate of opioid overdoses; from 2015–2016, the number of opioid–related overdose deaths in the county increased by 44%.MethodsThis quality improvement project is the implementation of a nurse-delivered, evidence-based education initiative for patients prescribed an opioid in an emergency department. Nurses were briefly trained on opioid safety and patient education, then over 12 weeks, delivered the dual-modal (verbal and written) education with a patient teach-back to verify comprehension.ResultsNurses who completed the project training on opioid safety and patient education had a statistically significant improvement in their knowledge. Patient satisfaction surveys showed 100% of patients reported clear understanding of how to take their pain medication, and out of the patients receiving the opioid pain education for the first time, 88.2% learned something new about how to safe...
Source: Journal of Emergency Nursing - Category: Nursing Source Type: research