Document Type
DNP Project
Publication Date
3-2023
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Faculty Advisor
Sylvie Rosenbloom, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CDCES, CME
Practice Mentor
Cheryl Gooden, MD, FAAP, DNP
Abstract
Background: All patients are standardly kept NPO prior to surgery to minimize aspiration risks. Increased NPO times for infants has been found to lead to patient distress, hemodynamic instability, ketoacidosis and acid-base imbalances. Optimizing NPO times for young pediatric patients helps to decrease fasting times, which minimizes the safety concerns listed above.
Objectives: The objective of this project was to implement specific education instructions to parents of infants during the pre-operative phone calls and confirm their understanding of this education through the teach-back method.
Methods: The intervention for this project added educational instructions with a teach-back question into the verbal portion of “The Standing Orders with Authentication for Pediatric Patients Receiving Anesthesia and/or Sedation” in the pediatric operating room at a large academic hospital located in Connecticut. This addition directed the Pre-Anesthesia Visit (PAV) RNs to educate parents of infants < 1 year of age undergoing outpatient surgery about the importance of encouraging clear fluids up until 1 hour before arrival (2 hours before surgery).
Results: The data collected showed that the average NPO time for the group prior to the intervention was 5.75 hours and the average NPO time for the post-intervention group was 3.88 hours.
Conclusion: The data demonstrates that the intervention group displayed a decreased average NPO time by almost two hours. This suggests that implementing parental education on the importance of clear fluid intake in the preoperative phone calls helped to decrease NPO times.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ward, Julie C. (2023). Optimizing NPO times in infant outpatient surgical patients [Unpublished DNP project]. Sacred Heart University.
Comments
A DNP project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice, Sacred Heart University Davis & Henley College of Nursing.