Abstract
Background: One of the largest risks for respiratory depression and respiratory arrest in the hospital is the administration of opioid-based medications, which has been termed opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) (Van der Schier, Roozekrans, van Velzen, Dahan, & Niesters, 2014). Capnography assesses ventilation during every exhaled breath via a non-invasive nasal cannula-type device, or in giving real-time monitoring, whereas using pulse oximetry can take anywhere from 20 seconds (in healthy individuals) to 90 seconds (in the critically ill) to show changes in oxygenation (Lo, 2015). The attitude of nurses implementing capnography monitoring is of increasing importance (Clark, Weavind, Nelson, Wilkie, Conway, & Freundlich, 2018) and their perceptions are critical factors in its acceptance and successful implementation (Edmondson, Bohmer, & Pisano, 2001).|Objective: To describe the impact of an educational intervention on nurses’ understanding and acceptance of the implementation of capnography monitoring.|Methods: This project was conducted over a period of five months. One hospital that was going to implement capnography did a pre-test, educational intervention, post-test, and follow-up questionnaire intervention. A comparison hospital that has already implemented capnography did an identical post-test.|Results: Results did not show statistical significance for the pre-test/post-test (p=.053). However, comparison of questions and scores showed clinical significance with an educational intervention.|Conclusions: The results of this quality improvement project indicate that providing an educational intervention when implementing capnography monitoring could improve nurses’ understanding and acceptance of capnography monitoring.