Poster - #KUMCW20 - Improving Quality of Nursing Education in Skeletal Traction

Improving Quality of Nursing Education in Skeletal Traction

Justin Cline MD, Jack Nolte BS, Gregory Mendez MD, Jordan Willis MD, Andrew Bachinskas MD, Clint Benge MD, Bradley Dart MD
Department of Orthopedics, KU School of Medicine – Wichita

ABSTRACT
Problem: Previously a mainstay of fracture treatment, skeletal traction is now primarily used for temporary fracture stabilization prior to internal fixation. Though nursing management of patients in skeletal traction remains a critical skill to prevent adverse patient outcomes, we found no standardized protocol regarding care of these patients at our Level 1 trauma center. Baseline Measurement / Assessment: Orthopaedic nurse participants were administered a pretest to assess their knowledge of and comfort with the following aspects of skeletal traction: pin care, manual traction, frame assembly, weight application and removal, skin evaluation, neurovascular checks, and reporting issues. Design: A skeletal traction management protocol was drafted and implemented as hospital policy. Twenty-nine registered nurses (RNs) from an orthopaedic unit attended a financially-compensated, 45-minute, in-person, off-shift educational session. After completing the pretest assessment, the RNs were briefed on the new hospital policy and key points were demonstrated. After the session, the RNs were given an identical post-test to determine changes in their perceived knowledge of and comfort with traction care. Results: Statically significant improvements in RN knowledge and comfort were seen in six of the seven topics. The greatest increase was seen with manual traction. No significant change was observed regarding neurovascular checks, but this subject had the highest pretest scores. Conclusion: We successfully created and implemented a hospital protocol that significantly improved the level of RN knowledge of and comfort with the management of patients requiring skeletal traction. Future studies could assess the effectiveness of annual education regarding the traction policy.