Clinical practice guidelines for early mobilization hours after surgery

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Clinical Practice Guidelines
• Orthopaedic Care

Background:

• Lack of published nursing literature on improving orthopaedic care standards.
• Outmoded nursing practices in orthopaedics required updating.
• Need for interdisciplinary collaboration to enhance patient care quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for orthopaedic nursing.
• To update existing orthopaedic nursing practices and improve patient outcomes.
• To establish a new standard of care in orthopaedic nursing.

Main Methods:

• Development and implementation of a clinical practice guideline (CPG) through interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Focus on initiating early postoperative activity, including dangling patients on the day of surgery.
• Systematic monitoring of patient outcomes, including time to first activity, pain scores, and length of stay.

Main Results:

• Reduced time to first postoperative activity from 16.8 hours to 6 hours.
• Achieved postoperative pain scores below 4 (on a 0-10 scale) at multiple time points.
• Decreased average length of hospital stay from 4.3 days to 2.8 days.
• No adverse patient consequences reported following the implementation of the CPG.

Conclusions:

• The implementation of the clinical practice guideline (CPG) significantly improved patient care quality in orthopaedics.
• Early postoperative activity, facilitated by the CPG, is beneficial and safe for patients.
• The CPG demonstrated value in enhancing recovery, managing pain, and reducing length of stay, supporting its widespread adoption.