Radiation Safety Educational Intervention for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist by Khadija Faulkner

Abstract

Purpose: The radiation safety quality improvement (QI) project was generated by the Safety and Quality Coordinator over Anesthesia across multiple facilities, and the project addresses practice, quality, and safety issues related to anesthesia providers.

Background: The Clinical Question for this QI project is “In Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), does a radiation safety online educational intervention enhance knowledge of radiation safety measures?”

Methods: The project members conducted a comprehensive review of the literature. Members created a narrated educational infographic about occupational ionizing radiation to implement this project. The site for this QI project was an inner-city full-service hospital. The intervention contained a pre-test consisting of four demographic and 11 knowledge-based questions, a narrated radiation safety infographic, and a post-test consisting of the same knowledge-based questions as the pre-test.

Results: Data analysis revealed that the educational infographic enhanced Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) knowledge of radiation safety. CRNAs demonstrated the most improvement in their knowledge of potential health hazards of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation.

Conclusion: The QI project recommends increasing distance from the radiation source, custom fit lead, acknowledgment of ionizing radiation use during the surgical time-out, and for CRNAs to be sent their quarterly dosimeter reports.

Keywords: anesthesiologists, cancer, cataracts, fluoroscopy, ionizing radiation, nurse anesthetists, pregnancy, occupational risk, radiation exposure

Presentation

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Biography

Khadija Faulkner, BSN, RN attended the University of South Carolina, where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. She worked as a Registered Nurse (RN) for five years in different Medical/Surgical Intensive Care units. In 2021, she began the University of North Carolina at Charlotte/ Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) Nurse Anesthesia Program. She is projected to graduate in May 2024 with her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP) and, upon passing the National Certification Exam (NCE), will become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).

Collaborator(s)

Alyssa Oliveri

Faculty Committee Advisor(s)

Stephanie Woods, NP

Tricia Turner, PhD, ATC

Jodie Huffstetler, EdD, MAEd, RT (R)

Katie Shue-McGuffin, DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-C

Diane Earnhardt, CRNA