Role Designation Tool for Use During Emergency Situations in the PACU
The Role Designation Tool was successfully implemented in 2021. Each PACU shift uses the tool to identify team members responsible for responding to decompensation/emergency situations in the PACU setting. This work resulted in improving confidence in PACU staff during emergency situations and improved awareness of roles/responsibilities during patient emergencies.
The project includes targeted education on specific skills/roles performed by RN & PCT staff during these decompensation/emergency situations: airway management, compressions, emergency medication administration, documentation, and emergency equipment). Monthly education and skill station practice remain a focus to upkeep current knowledge and skills.
This work has been presented via oral presentation at the 2021 TSPAN Fall Conference and via poster presentation at the 2022 National ASPAN Conference.
Urology Study Highlight
While once thought to be a sterile site, increasing evidence supports the finding that urine is not sterile. New discoveries are being made in understanding the microbiome that exists within the urine. A team of investigators here at VUMC including Maria Hadgifrangiskou, Ph.D. and Jonathan Schmitz, MD, Ph.D. (Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology) along with Dr. Douglass Clayton, MD (Department of Urology) have been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health to build the Vanderbilt Urologic Infection Repository (VUIR)...(continue reading)
Neurosurgery Study Highlight
The global workforce for neurosurgery in low- and middle-income countries is dismal – and the problem for children, specifically, represents a crisis. Recently, Dr. Michael Dewan, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery teamed up with colleagues in Manila, Bangkok, and Melbourne, to understand the relevant gaps in neurosurgical training and care across Asia and Australasia. These results published last month in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, derives from more than 20 countries, and offer insight into the training and skillsets of surgeons who treat neurologic conditions in this large geographic region. The tremendous need for enhanced neurosurgical training was identified for several conditions in particular: epilepsy, spasticity, vascular malformations, brain tumors, and craniofacial abnormalities. Indeed, Dr. Dewan along with Division partner Dr. Christopher Bonfield – who co-leads the Vanderbilt Global Neurosurgery Program with Dr. Dewan – are already actively involved in efforts to narrow this training and education gap across several LMIC. (Read Journal Article HERE)