Date of this Version

7-30-2020

Document Type

DNP Project

Abstract

The treatment of asthma exacerbations in the emergency department can be very complex and involves a multidisciplinary approach that involves evaluation and reevaluation of the patient in order to make adjustments to the plan of care. Clinical pathways are increasingly being used to guide patient care and by incorporating clinical pathways in an emergency department it can lessen the variation in the delivery of care, reduce the use of unnecessary resources, and improve the overall quality of care for patients (Dexheimer, Abramo, Arnold, Johnson, Shyr, Ye, Fan, Patel, & Aronsky, 2013). A systematic review was conducted to examine the impact of asthma clinical pathways on patient care and the impact of an educational intervention on clinical staff knowledge. The findings of the systematic review laid the foundation for a quality improvement project, which included the development of an educational intervention for the nursing staff in order to increase their knowledge of asthma management and the asthma clinical pathway currently being used in the Emergency Department. The findings from the quality improvement project were in line with the findings from the systematic review and support the project’s aims that an educational intervention can improve the nursing staff’s knowledge. A 15% improvement in overall knowledge was observed.

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