Year
2014
Season
Fall
Paper Type
Doctoral Project
College
Brooks College of Health
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
NACO controlled Corporate Body
University of North Florida. School of Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. W. Patrick Monaghan
Second Advisor
Dr. Gerard T. Hogan
Rights Statement
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Third Advisor
Dr. E. Jane McCarthy
Department Chair
Dr. Lillia M. Loriz
College Dean
Dr. Pamela S. Chally
Abstract
Glass particle contamination of medication occurs when opening ampules which may cause patient harm. The use of filter needles reduces this risk. Many anesthesia providers use ampules daily, but do not use filter needles when aspirating medications from ampules. In addition, filter needles may not be readily available at the anesthesia medication preparation site. Not using filter needles or having them available for use can increase the risk of patient harm by glass particle contamination. The purpose of this project was to increase anesthesia provider’s knowledge thereby improving compliance with evidence-based standards when preparing medications from ampules. The goal is to increase filter needle use when medication is aspirated from an ampule in order to decrease the risk of glass particle contamination to the patient. This project consisted of a one-group pre/post intervention design using a piloted self-developed survey, an education intervention, and tracking of filter needle use. The convenience sample of eighty-three recruited anesthesia providers included anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologist assistants that consented to participate. The filter needle inventory was tracked via an existing software program to determine filter needle use three months prior and three months after the intervention. Data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of this project found greater awareness among participants of standards and organizations regarding filter needle use with ampules, greater awareness of availability of filter needles on anesthesia carts, and a five-fold increase in filter needle usage by participants three months following the intervention as compared to three months prior to the intervention.
Suggested Citation
Harmon, Debran L., "Anesthesia Safety: Filter Needle Use With Glass Ampules" (2014). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 538.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/538