Many adverse events are identified as nursing-sensitive indicators (NSIs) and have evidence-based care bundles known to reduce risk of occurrence. Kamishibai cards are a tool from the manufacturing industry used for practice auditing and improvements. Use of Kamishibai cards is believed to be common in the healthcare setting, but true evidence-based guidelines do not yet exist to guide their implementation.
The aim of this integrative review was to identify best practices around the implementation of Kamishibai cards in the healthcare setting for improvement in NSI-associated outcomes.
Eleven nurses at three facilities worked through the evidence using the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Model.
Ten articles were included for this review. Broad themes included direct observation with non-punitive and timely feedback, clearly visualized results, use of evidence-based care bundles, pre-implementation education, and both leadership and frontline-staff involvement. All facilities showed improvement in NSI-associated outcomes after the implementation of K-cards.
In health care, K-cards can be implemented and designed with additional focus on the bundles of care they are intended to audit and staff support, but further evidence would better define guidelines around implementation.
Elopement jeopardizes patient safety, affects the hospital's reputation, and results in financial ramifications. In an academic community hospital, executive leadership approached a team of nurse leaders for expertise following the elopement of a vulnerable patient.
The team's goal was to identify evidence-based strategies to mitigate future elopement events. Following an extensive literature review and gap analysis, the organization recognized opportunities pertaining to elopement management, including patient assessment, prevention strategies, and facility-wide response when events occur. The nurse leader team thoroughly searched current literature to answer the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (i.e., PICO) questions of interest. Following a critical appraisal of 55 articles, 26 were utilized to make practice change recommendations. The body of evidence included a variety of age groups and diagnoses.
After the synthesis of the literature, the team provided recommendations to the organization. These recommendations included the assessment of patient-specific risks and the implementation of elopement prevention measures as fundamental elements for incidence reduction. The team partnered with multidisciplinary stakeholders for the revision of policies, processes, and electronic medical record documentation.
The organization monitored elopement events and the duration of each event throughout the phases of implementation. Pre-implementation data, collected from January to June 2021, demonstrated 34 individual elopement cases lasting an average of 118 min each. In comparison, post-implementation data collected during the same time frame in 2022 found only 12 events lasting an average of 24 min each.
The organization implemented evidence-based recommendations to standardize the facility's approach to elopement. With structured assessment, precautions, and response, the organization demonstrated a notable decline in the number and duration of elopement events. Hardwiring processes, analyzing data, and adjusting expectations within an evidence-based framework should assist the organization's drive to further enhance patient safety surrounding elopement events.