Nurse Residency

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  In patients aged 70 and above, male and female, how does the length of stay after treatment compared to early discharge impact the patient's level of orientation?

  Amanda Ames, Caitlin Chasse, and Jamie Beaupre

  Background: The length of stay after treatment can put patients’ health and well-being at a disadvantage. Length of stay can not only cause delirium but can also have detrimental impacts on pre-existing comorbidities. By decreasing a patient's length of stay following the completion of treatment, there are lower levels of adverse outcomes that not only benefit the patient but also those around them.

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  The Comparison Between Chlorhexidine and Providone-Iodine Antiseptics in the Operating Rom to Prevent Surgical Site Infections

  Eleanor Decarolis

  Background: Surgical site infections (SSI's) are one of the most common and costly complications from surgery. Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) and Povidione-Iodine (PVI) are the most common antiseptics used in surgery. The efficacy and uses of these surgical preps have been studied to determine the most effective in preventing surgical site infections.

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  The Therapeutic Use of Intraoperative Music to Reduce Postoperative Pain in Patients Receiving General Anesthesia

  Caroline Ford

  Background: The recovery from surgery can be very painful for some patients and require opioid management and longer hospital stays for unmanaged pain. Music has been a non-analgesic way of helping patients with chronic pain and recent studies have shown that music intraoperatively can greatly improve the patients' pain after surgery requiring general anesthesia.

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  Improving the Balance Between Patient Satisfaction and Efficient ED Throughput

  Jessica Graham and Izzi Marceau

  Background: Patients come into the Emergency Department (ED)when they are having an emergent health concern. One role of the ED nurse is balancing the patient expectations of care with ensuring the flow of the department. The studies reviewed here examine the way that ED nurses can help to coordinate realistic expectations for patients as they are waiting to be seen.

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  Smoke Evacuation in the Operating Room

  Meghan Holley and McKenzie Moon

  In perioperative staff, does mandating the use of smoke evacuation in the surgical setting compared to no smoke evacuation decrease the amount of exposure to toxic byproducts found in surgical plume for each surgical case?

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  HELP Programs Impact on Delirium

  Abigail Holt

  Background: Delirium is a condition that affects 1/3 of patients in the hospital. It is a condition that is preventable and reversible.

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  Use of Language-Adapted Resources in the Non-English Speaking Patient Population

  Jenny Lansing and Emma Dubois

  Background: Across the healthcare field, it is essential that patients and families can both communicate and understand the care they receive. A lack in this can lead to delays in care, missed findings, unnecessary care and costs, and even preventable emergencies. Limited research surrounds the impact that language barriers pose as well as methods to address this.

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  Purewick Versus Foley Catheters

  Ashleigh Lunt, Grace Tibbetts, and Tia Hufstader

  Background: A Foley catheter is an indwelling urinary drainage device that is placed in a patient's urethra and remains in their bladder, continuously draining urine into a bag. In hospital settings, there are many indications for indwelling catheters such as strict I&O monitoring, incontinence, retention, end of life comfort, surgery, and immobility.

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  Improving Nurse-Provider Communication

  Caitlin Martel-Harrington and Martha Mary Lane

  Background: Ineffective communication among healthcare staff has been shown to cause an increase in errors and decrease in patient satisfaction.

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  Evidence-Based Diabetes Exercise Intervention

  Laura Smith

  Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic, noninfectious disease that affects a large population of adults in the world. Typically, it is associated with obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and the consumption of undesirable meals (Nakrani et al., 2020/2023). Even with various treatments available for type 2 diabetes, most patients find it challenging to maintain a steady blood glucose level.

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  Environmentally Friendly Disposal of Pharmaceuticals in the Hospital Setting

  Kate Sobanik

  Background: The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Drug Enforcement have regulations on the safe handling of narcotics as well as guidelines for environmental sustainability with the disposal of all pharmaceuticals. Federal, state and local regulations can vary but hospitals are required to dispose of pharmaceuticals in specific ways to prevent injury to the environment and living organisms.

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  The Impact of Prone Ventilation Among Patients Diagnosed with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

  Mary Steward and Kimberly Loomis

  Background Mechanical ventilation is a commonICU intervention for patients in respiratory distress. Proning is a form of mechanical ventilation that has been recently studied which improves gas exchange and lung perfusion among patients specifically diagnosed with ARDS.

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  Nurse Mentorship and Retention

  Alicia St Michel

  Background: Every year hospitals experience staff turnover. Implementation of a mentorship program apart from someone who is a preceptor, could help with staff retention and staff satisfaction.

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  How Environment of Care Standards Impact Patient Satisfaction

  Taylor Tantingco and Raeven Bilugan

  Background: Environment of Care (EOC) are standards of care that revolve around the safety and well-being of both the staff and the patient.

  EOC takes into account variables such as a clean environment, basic standards of care (ADLs), and access to resources/materials.

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  The Benefits of Simulation-Based Training

  Brooke Taylor

  Background: Due to COVID-19, many hospitals shut down their in-person classes and simulated trainings. This has had a negative impact on the education of our new graduate nurses.

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  Roommates and Privacy: An Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction with Shared Rooms in Medical-Surgical Units

  Michelle Tope and James Wiesen

  BACKGROUND: Two patients often share a hospital room on medical-surgical floors. However, this arrangement does not consider the patients’ subjective sense of privacy, comfort, or quality of sleep. When those needs are unmet, patients are less satisfied with their hospital stay. There is some research on patient’s preference for private rooms versus shared rooms.

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  Fall Rates in Patient Populations with Remote Video Monitoring Compared to Companions

  Alexandra Volpe and Catherine Close

  Background: Healthcare facilities are constantly searching for new and improved interventions to minimize injury and fall rates within their units. 1:1 companions, or ‘sitters’, have been used to provide the patient with close monitoring in order to accomplish these goals. However, companions are not always a liable option for facilities due to poor staffing and increased expense in order to staff a ratio of 1 companion to 1 patient. Research has started to develop on the benefits of remote video monitoring, or ‘telesitting’, as an intervention to minimize fall risk and injury.

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  Robotic vs. Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery

  Chloe Aiken and Abigail Reera

  Background: As OR nurses, we have seen an increase in the number of robot-assisted bariatric surgeries instead of being performed laparoscopically. In the United States, the first surgical robotic telepresence system became available in 1987. From there, IntuitiveSurgical, Inc. reworked that system to create numerous prototypes leading to the DaVinci series that we utilize at SMHC.

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  Effect of Preoperative Skin Cleansing on Instances of Surgical Site Infections

  Katie Armington, Jessica Blank, Madison Waterhouse, Cynthia Gavett, Hailey Tofflemoyer, Rachelle Cassidy, Lindsay Bushnell, Jennifer Barriere, and Anastasia Colbath

  Background

  • On a single square centimeter of skin, there can be as many as 10 million aerobic bacteria

  • Bacteria on a patient’s skin is the leading cause of infection related to surgery

  • 17% of all hospital acquired infections come from surgical site infections

  • Surgical site infections cost about $3,000 $29,000 per patient

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  Initiating Chlorhexidine Wipes for Infection Prevention in the ICU

  Samantha Carey

  Background

  • Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) result in approximately 28,000 deaths and approximately $2.3 billion in added costs to the U.S. healthcare system each year, and yet, many of these infections are preventable (Reynolds, 2021).

  • Chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) is an antiseptic that can be used for skin cleaning and has been shown to be effective against a wide range of organisms, including some antimicrobial-resistant organisms.

  • The primary objective of this study was to assess the incidents of CLABSI’s when CHG wipes were implemented compared to traditional bathing soap and water for patients with a central line in a critical care setting. The secondary objective was to examine how cost effective CHG wipes were in comparison to traditional bathing supplies.

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  Smoking Cessation Post-Discharge for Medical Surgical Patients

  Jessica Francis and Julie Lavery

  Introduction: Does the combination of behavioral counseling coupled with medication (vs medication alone) result in greater smoking cessation for our patients after discharge?

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  Implementation of Frequent Skin Assessments

  Tiffany Gagnon

  Background:

  The current skin assessment policy at the Behavioral Health Unit at Southern Maine Health Care requires more frequent skin checks for patients who are immobile in a mental health department.

  The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports “hospital-acquired pressure injury rates continue to rise across the United States” (Pittman et al., 2022).

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  The Registered Nurse, Fall Prevention, and Mobilization Alarms

  Anna Williams

  Background:

  Current Maine Health policy requires response to a mobilization alarm within 5 minutes by a RN, CNA or other clinician. Fall risk assessments are required upon arrival and admission, at the beginning of each shift, transfer between units, changes in patient condition and after a fall.

  Current practice involves the TIPS tool.

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  How Important Are Regular Breaks for Bedside Nursing Staff?

  Gabriel Wohl

  Background: A career in nursing can be a challenging one and a rewarding one. Nurses work directly with patients in need, in a way that their efforts have an immediate and tangible impact. Due to the nature of the work itself, nursing is also a physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding career that often leads to exhaustion, burnout, and in many cases, a departure from the profession altogether. It is well known that nurses work long hours and often receive little to no breaks. Is this lack of proper breaks a chief accessory to the overall dissatisfaction and burnout that nurses experience? What does the data tell us?