Authors (including presenting author) :
CK Chan, SM Lo, KT Ho, KW Lam, CW Chan, TK Tsao ,KY Choi , MS BOO, LF Li
Affiliation :
Department of Neurosurgery, Queen Mary Hospital
Introduction :
Brainstem death (BSD) is the irreversible cessaEon of all brainstem funcEons and creates a criEcal care challenge for nurses working in Neurosurgery Intensive Care Units (Neuro-ICU). A training program was conducted in 2024 to enhance our nurses’ understanding and competence about the diagnostic criteria and the process of performing BSD test.
Objectives :
(1)To equip nurses with the competency to identify potential brainstem death patients;
(2) To enhance nurses’ knowledge and skills of clinical examination for brainstem death
(3) To prepare nurses for the care of patients with brainstem death.
Methodology :
The training program was implemented for 20 Neuro-ICU nurses from May 22 to July 30, 2024. Participants were invited to complete a pre-test with 13 multiple-choice questions, followed by a 30-minute face-to-face training session. Four weeks later, a post-test with same questions was performed to assess knowledge retention. Mean scores of the pre-test and post-test were calculated to determine the level of knowledge before and after the training.
Result & Outcome :
Results:
It was found that the mean score of the pre-test was 8.61 (66.2%). Four weeks after the training program, the mean score improved to 11.22 (86.3%). In addition , 23.8% and 34.0% improvement were found in the domains of questions in “Cranial Nerves Functions” and “Clinical Procedures and Confirmatory Tests”.
Conclusions:
The training program was effective in enhancing the understanding and competence of nurses towards about the diagnostic criteria and the process of performing BSD test.
