Nurse Residency

This is a collection of work created by members of the New Graduate Nurse Residency Program of MaineHealth. This program serves as an adjunct to the traditional clinical orientation experience of one-on-one with a registered nurse preceptor.

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Stethoscope Cleansing

Addie Brinkman RN and Eric Langland RN

PICOT Question: How often do healthcare providers clean their stethoscopes, and does it contribute to an increase in nosocomial infection?
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.
How will the use of a black out hour and the improvement in handoff communication increase patient safety when arriving on the medical surgical units?

Mackenzie Aleva

Background: Change of shift admissions also increase nurse's frustration and workload. Most importantly change of shift admissions pose a risk for patient safety. On this unit specifically there are frequent change of shift admissions that occur.
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.
Resources for Reduction of Stress and Burnout in Healthcare Workers Following a Mass Casualty Event

Emily Dunn and Tonya Ernst

Background:

Being in healthcare, employees are faced with all sorts of challenges regarding their own mental and physical health and how to prioritize it, on top of caring for patients and their families. One challenge that healthcare workers hope they never have to learn how to cope with is the stress of mass casualty events.
Shared Governance and Impact on Nursing Job Satisfaction

Karl Buhr and Colleen Lagulli

Background: Emergency departments are extremely dynamic environments that require continuous quality improvement and adaptation. Implementation of change is necessary but has a great effect on the workflow of nursing staff.
The Impact of Clustered Nursing on Adult Patients in the ICU

Haley Armentrout and Jacob Sackett

Background: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are at risk of developing many different complications due to the complex nature of their health conditions as well as the care required in the critical care environment. Among the different complications that can occur in this population, delirium and issues associated with mechanical ventilation are especially concerning.
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.
Effect of Virtual Reality on Pediatric IV Placement

Alicia Blakely BSN, RN; Rachel Matson BSN, RN; Elizabeth Johansson BSN, RN; Lindsey Barrow BSN, RN; and Lindsey Howe BSN, RN

In the pediatric population, how does use of virtual reality therapy during PIV placement affect levels of patient pain and anxiety, compared to non-virtual reality distractions, during PIV placement procedure?
How Healthcare Workers Can Improve the Experiences of Transgender Patients

Oliver Shears RN, BSN

Among adult transgender patients (18+) in an inpatient or outpatient setting, does having healthcare team members competent in transgender healthcare improve overall patient satisfaction with their hospital stay?
Impacts of Working Nightshift on New Graduate Nurses

Alivia Brown RN, ADN and Carlin Stimus RN, ADN

Does working nightshift have an impact New Graduate Nurses health and knowledge retention?
Racial Bias and its Role in Maternal Mortality

Allison Roets RN and Katy Flanagan RN

How does racial bias play a role in the mortality rates of minority, specifically black antepartum patients when compared to white women?
Smoke Evacuation in the Operating Room

Meghan Holley RN, BSN and McKenzie Moon RN

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?
Support for the Carpuject Syringe System as a Best Practice in Nursing Care

Mostapha (Stav) Aghamoosa RN, BSN; Warren Johnson RN, ADN; Benjamin Kim RN, ADN; and Nicole Murphy RN, BSN

Many nurses at Maine Medical Center (MMC) are not using the Carpuject syringe system, despite the fact that the ready-to-administer (RTA) prefilled syringe product is distributed to the med room. The Carpuject syringe system can reduce medication administration errors as well as improve time efficacy in nursing practice and therefore should be in wide use at MMC.
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?
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).
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.
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.
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?
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.
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