Date of Award

Spring 5-27-2023

Document Type

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscript

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Katherine Lais, DNP, PMHNP-BC

Abstract

Background: At this time the crisis stabilization Units do not currently utilize the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment: Alcohol Revised tool with patients who may experience Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome. Patients with alcohol use disorders have a high comorbidity rate with psychiatric disorders (Butterfield, et al, 2020). The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment: Alcohol Revised or CIWA-Ar is currently the most widely used assessment tool in the psychiatric setting when assessing patients who may be experiencing Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (Pribék, et al, 2021) .

Purpose of Project: The purpose of this project is to measure pre and post -education knowledge of the registered and licensed vocational nurses in the crisis stabilization units prior to implementing the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment: Alcohol Revised in the Crisis Stabilization Unit. According to an article written by Melkonian, et al, “Education about the use of the CIWA-Ar is an important part of implementation” (2019).

EBP Model/Frameworks: The evidence-based practice model that has been chosen for this project has been used to implement many front-line projects over the years within the Johns Hopkins Hospital organization, the Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice model. This model has a long-standing history as it has been utilized with front-line nursing EBP projects in the hospital setting.

Evidenced Based Interventions: The interventions are the creation of a Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment: Alcohol Revised pre and post-knowledge test that will be implemented and based on the educational presentation that is given to the registered and licensed vocational nurses at the Crisis Stabilization Units.

Results: The results of the pre-knowledge test show that nursing staff had the basic knowledge of the CIWA-Ar but were not as confident to utilize the tool on a regular basis to assess alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the crisis stabilization unit. The scores on the post-knowledge test showed that the majority of the nurse has a slight improvement in their evidence-based knowledge of the CIWA-Ar as well as in their confidence to utilize the CIWA-Ar tool to assess alcohol withdrawal symptoms in the crisis stabilization unit.

Evaluation: By implementing pre and post-knowledge testing with an educational presentation to register and licensed vocational nurses at the Crisis Stabilization Units, allows for clear guidelines for said staff to assess patients and administer treatment based upon guidelines and orders given by providers based upon the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment: Alcohol Revised score of a patient. This will also allow access to care for some who do not have access to a hospital for the management of [mild to moderate] AWS (Moore, TA, 2020).

Download

Share

COinS