Degree Name

Nursing Practice, DNP

Publication Date

12-4-2023

Upload Date

2024

First Advisor

Linda Latting

Abstract

Sepsis is a serious life-threatening condition that kills hundreds of thousands of patients every year and is a major leading cause of death. Sepsis is a medical emergency where early identification and prompt treatment are crucial for survival. Despite assessment tools for early recognition, a delay in antibiotic therapy remains. A sepsis alert (Code Sepsis) in the emergency department could improve sepsis care, spare countless lives, and save billions of dollars nationwide, annually. The implementation of a Code Sepsis will trigger a team to deliver immediate treatment and ensure one hour antibiotic administration times. The John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice (JHNEBP) Model guides this quality improvement project. A quantitative analysis using a chi-square test was conducted to compare pre- and post-sepsis alert antibiotic administration times to determine a sepsis alert’s effectiveness in delivering one-hour antibiotics. Prior to the sepsis alert, 10/50 patients received antibiotics within one hour. After the sepsis alert was implemented, 29/50 patients received antibiotics within one hour. There was a statistically significant increase in the rate of antibiotic administration times within one hour in the intervention group post-sepsis alert sample. These results provide clear evidence that a sepsis alert is a nursing intervention that plays a crucial role in the timely administration of antibiotics for septic patients in the emergency department.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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