P1.031: Effect of Summary Sheet Teaching on PICU RN Education

Background: Research has spurred guidelines regarding the best methods to deliver effective teaching within an ICU setting. While recommended methods include “Mini-Chalk Talks” and “One-Minute Preceptor”, the literature on the effectiveness of different teaching models in this setting is sparse. In our tertiary pediatric ICU (PICU), we identified early career nursing (RN) staff as an audience that wants more education in critical care pathophysiology and management.

Methods: We developed short one page summary sheets on four topics including asthma, increased intracranial pressure, vasoactives, and ventilator basics, to accompany short didactic sessions led by Critical Medicine APPs or fellows in the PICU. Each session was conducted at unit teaming centers to ensure a minimum of one exposure of each topic for each participating RN. Pre- and post-surveys were developed to evaluate perceived and desired frequency of education by PICU RNs and perceived quality of provided education. Multiple choice pre- and post-tests were developed to assess nursing knowledge on these subjects before and after intervention.

Results: This study is currently ongoing. Preliminary results reveal a desire for increased teaching frequency among the 33 respondents who completed the pre-survey. 26 (78.89%) of these 33 respondents desire frequent or very frequent teaching from APPs and fellows. Of 24 respondents who have completed the intervention for asthma education and the asthma post-test, there was a statistically significant change in test scores testing asthma knowledge utilizing paired t-test (p=0.005). Similarly, there was an effect for the 17 responses for ICP intervention (p=0.0001) and ventilator intervention (p=0.002). Teaching interventions are currently ongoing aiming for at least one teaching session exposure every month for each RN participant.

Conclusion: In our single-center study on the effectiveness of bedside education to PICU RNs, we conclude that bedside RNs desire frequent or very frequent teaching from unit APPs and fellows. We have yet to determine if short semi-structured teaching sessions increase bedside RN subject knowledge, but data available thus far show statistically significant improvement utilizing paired t-test.