Background: VTE
significantly contributes to morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients.
Patients with gynecologic cancers are at high risk primarily due to malignancy,
increased age, and recent surgery and immobility. Several evidence-based
interventions are used to decrease the risk of hospital-acquired VTE commonly
leading to institutional policies. The division of Gynecologic Oncology at
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center standardized VTE prevention
guidelines in 2015.
Methods: Participants
included OB-GYN residents, Gynecologic Oncology fellows and nurses on the
Gynecologic Oncology floor. Participants received a fifteen question pre-test
immediately followed by an educational presentation describing the venous
thromboembolism prevention guidelines. They then received the same fifteen
question post-test. The participants were re-tested in six months to gauge
knowledge retention. The scores were compared using an unpaired T test.
Results: There
were seventy-five eligible participants. The survey response rates were:
pretest 68%, post-test 35%, follow up pretest 28% and follow up posttest 21%.Of
the participants who identified their role, 62% were nurses, 33% were residents
and 5% were fellows. There was a statistically significant difference between
the test scores before and after the educational intervention during the
initial intervention and the six month follow up (p= 0.0001). During the
initial survey, the mean pre-test and post-test scores were 54.5% (95% CI
49.7-59.3) and 80.2% (95% CI 73.4-87.1) respectively. At the six month follow
up, the mean pre-test and post-test scores were 62.2% (95% CI 56.5-67.9) and
82.1% (95% CI 75.3-88.9) respectively. There was no significant difference between
the post-test scores at zero and six months (p= 0.7).
Discussions: These findings suggest
that knowledge of the VTE prevention guidelines improved following an
educational module. Further studies can elucidate the impact of this knowledge
on compliance with the VTE protocol and incidence of hospital-acquired VTE.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2019, Student, Resident, Faculty, Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, Systems-Based Practice & Improvement, GME, Quality & Safety, Gynecologic Oncology,
Lauren Bouchard,
Resident MD, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center; John Nakayama,
MD
