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Translating Evidence to Practice for Mechanical Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis
Author(s) -
Larkin Brenda G.,
Mitchell Kimberly M.,
Petrie Kathryn
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
aorn journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1878-0369
pISSN - 0001-2092
DOI - 10.1016/j.aorn.2012.07.011
Subject(s) - medicine , perioperative nursing , perioperative , specialty , venous thromboembolism , orthopedic surgery , best practice , nursing , medline , orthopaedic nursing , intensive care medicine , family medicine , surgery , thrombosis , management , political science , law , economics
Perioperative staff nurses at Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, questioned variations in the use of mechanical venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and sought to improve the consistency of prophylaxis care and ensure use of evidence‐based practices. A work group consisting of perioperative clinical nurse specialists, a nurse clinician, and a staff nurse performed a systematic literature review to determine best practices for the implementation of mechanical venous thromboembolism prevention in the perioperative period. Key practices identified included optimal application times for initiating mechanical prophylaxis before the surgical procedure and the use of unilateral mechanical prophylaxis for some orthopedic procedures. We found no published consensus regarding a cumulative benefit from combining sequential compression devices and graduated compression stockings and no clinical evidence to support the use of alternative configurations for specialty procedural tables to prevent venous thromboembolism. We disseminated the best practices that we identified within our hospital and to the greater nursing community through posters and presentations.