Clinical Decision Support and Perioperative Peripheral Nerve Injury: A Quality Improvement Project.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Surgical Care

Background:

• Peripheral nerve injury is a preventable postoperative adverse event.
• Operating rooms frequently integrate advanced technology for patient care.
• Nurses require enhanced knowledge and tools to prevent such injuries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve operating room nurses' knowledge of peripheral nerve injury.
• To implement a decision support tool for peripheral nerve injury risk assessment.
• To enhance nursing documentation and ultimately decrease injury incidence.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project focused on peripheral nerve injury prevention.
• Development and implementation of a decision support screen in the electronic health record.
• Educational interventions and pre/post-project knowledge surveys were conducted.

Main Results:

• Significant increase in nursing documentation of interventions (63% to 92%).
• Positive nurse attitudes towards utilizing decision support tools (P = .046).
• Improved knowledge regarding peripheral nerve injury was observed.

Conclusions:

• Decision support tools can enhance nursing documentation and patient safety in the OR.
• Standardized coding for peripheral nerve injury identification is recommended.
• Further research is needed to sustain and expand these improvements.