Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate nurse perceptions of the RRT utilizing the RRT Facilitators and Barriers Survey (Astroth et al., 2017) and educate nursing staff on early detection of patient deterioration and utilization of the rapid response team with the end goal of decreasing the number of cardiopulmonary arrests occurring outside of the ICU.|Methods: A pre-intervention survey was provided to HVI nursing staff to assess knowledge of criteria for activating the RRT and comfort with summoning the RRT. Objective criteria for RRT activation was disseminated, along with education on identifying patient deterioration and activating the RRT. A post-intervention survey was then provided to assess the success of nursing education on increasing knowledge and comfort with identifying patient deterioration and activating the RRT. Outcome measures included the number of rapid response and code blue activations pre- and post-intervention.
Results: There was an increase of 33 RRTs called post-intervention. There was no significant change in number of codes post-intervention. Survey results indicated improvement in nurse responses to unit culture, knowledge and education. Survey results indicated poorer perceptions of RRT team characteristics post-intervention.|Conclusions: Utilization of the RRT is heavily influenced by unit and hospital culture, suggesting that efforts for improved utilization should go beyond nurse education. Facilitators and barriers should be taken into consideration when seeking to improve RRT utilization.