Background: Therapeutic hypothermia can improve neurological recovery after cardiac arrest when implemented quickly.
Objective: To determine whether outcomes are improved among patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia by adding advanced practice registered nurses to a therapeutic hypothermia response team.
Methods: A pilot quality improvement project was conducted in a Midwest community teaching hospital using a retrospective chart review of all adult patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia before and after the addition of advanced practice registered nurses to the therapeutic hypothermia response team. Outcomes evaluated included time to target core body temperature, therapeutic hypothermia protocol initiation, discharge status, and hospital length of stay.
Results: A total of 14 adult patients (preintervention n = 8, postintervention n = 6) comprised the sample. Length of stay decreased in the postintervention group (median 2.5 vs 6 days for the preintervention group; P = .05), but other outcomes did not differ.
Conclusions: This quality improvement project provides foundational data to evaluate advanced practice registered nurses specific metrics and to compare with future data using a larger longitudinal sample.
Keywords: advanced practice nurses; induced hypothermia; patient outcomes; quality improvement; therapeutic hypothermia.
©2017 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.