Title: Development and implementation of an evidence-based protocol to increase nurses’ initiation of virtual patient observation

Abstract:

Introduction: Virtual patient observation (VPO) was a technology initiated in a hospital in September of 2022. Upon developing a policy surrounding VPO, there was a lack of a nursing protocol to guide nursing judgment toward VPO. The hospital, specifically one unit, was still experiencing patient falls, as with the under-utilization of this new technology even months after VPO. This promulgated the notion that clinical nurses may not be able to decipher how the technology could be aptly applied without a protocol to guide nursing judgment. 
Design: This was a quality improvement project focusing on developing and implementing a protocol for nurses to initiate VPO orders for patients at risk for falls. The nursing problem under investigation was the underutilization of VPO. 
Methods: This project was studied using pre and post-implementation data of the VPO protocol, using descriptive statistics. 
Results: The significant findings were that developing and implementing an evidence-based protocol did not increase nurses’ initiation of VPO. Due to the data and evidence henceforth that VPO is still underutilized, the VPO policy and perhaps additional education should be analyzed and discussed surrounding these unusual findings. These findings could mean that the problem either lies in a fault of the policy, a lack of education, or a lack of knowledge on the part of the clinical nurse who has the capacity to order VPO for safer patient care.
Keywords: Virtual patient observation, patient fall.

Biography:

Ashley Clark-Weichert has been a nurse for 19 years. Starting at her first job in the Intensive Care Unit at Georgetown University Hospital while on the Journey to Magnet Recognition, she got involved in shared governance, serving as a Magnet Champion, Unit-Based Council Chair, and Charge Nurse Leader. She grew over the years in her clinical experience and went back to school at George Mason University for a Masters in Nursing Education and was awarded a grant at the National Institutes of Health in Cancer Genomic Research through the National Human Genome Research Institute and National Cancer Institute. This was her first foray into nursing research. Ashley went to Yale University to pursue a doctorate in philosophy of nursing and qualified. She has multiple national and international presentations in the field of nursing genetics and genomics. She has also widely published in metabolomics in African Americans and authored a text book chapter. Ashley has now completed her DNP in nursing at Aspen University in January 2024. She currently works at Lee Health with her initial love of shared governance principles bringing the Magnet Journey to Cape Coral Hospital. She resides in Florida with her husband, two girls, and a newborn baby girl.