The Effect of Toolbox Trainings on Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Occupational Health and Safety
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Toolbox training (or toolbox talks) are short, on-the-job sessions designed to enhance occupational health and safety practices across various sectors.
• These trainings offer a platform for employees to engage, ask questions, and share experiences, thereby improving workplace safety protocols.
• The study focuses on the impact of such training on nursing-sensitive quality indicators within the healthcare environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of toolbox training on nursing-sensitive quality indicators among nurses.
• Key indicators assessed include pain management, pressure ulcer prevention, patient falls, peripheral venous catheter complications, and adverse event reporting.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial with pre-test, post-test, and control group design was employed.
• Nurses in the intervention group received toolbox training during their shifts, while the control group did not.
• Data were collected at baseline and at 8 and 12 weeks post-intervention, analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and repeated/mixed ANOVA.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements (p < 0.01) were observed in falls, pressure ulcers, pain management, peripheral venous catheter care, and adverse event reporting among nurses receiving toolbox training.
• Unit-level data showed decreased patient falls, pressure ulcer occurrences, and peripheral venous catheter complications.
• Conversely, the average number of correctly managed pain patients and reported adverse events initially increased post-training but showed a slight decrease by the third follow-up.

Conclusions:

• On-the-job toolbox training effectively enhances nurses' knowledge and practices related to nursing-sensitive quality indicators.
• This training method demonstrably improves unit-level quality indicators, supporting its role in nurses' in-service education.
• Toolbox training is recommended as an effective supplementary method to traditional in-service education for nurses to improve patient care quality.