Improving the recognition and treatment of sepsis in hospital
Early recognition and treatment of sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection, can save lives. New research from Eirian Edwards and Lorelei Jones from the School of Medical and Health Sciences, looked at sepsis knowledge, skills and attitudes of ward nurses and if sepsis training for ward nurses can improve care. While there are previous studies from A&E and ICU, this was one of the first studies to investigate the recognition and treatment of sepsis in patients on general medical and surgical wards, and to assess the effects of training. A questionnaire was completed by 98 nurses from 16 wards (39% of nurses on the wards) across an acute teaching hospital in Wales. The study found that nurses who had received sepsis training were significantly more likely to know the screening criteria for sepsis, to have a positive attitude to screening and management of sepsis, were more confident in screening for sepsis and more likely to have screened a patient for sepsis.
The most frequently reported barrier to timely recognition and treatment of sepsis on the wards was workload and inadequate staffing. Some nurses expressed concerns about inexperienced or unfamiliar staff on the wards, such as healthcare assistants and agency staff, when abnormal observations were not escalated appropriately. Sepsis training, sepsis tools (such as screening criteria, sepsis bundle and patient group directive) and peer support were all reported to help timely recognition and treatment of sepsis. The authors recommend sepsis training for all nurses.