Staff perspectives of a cardiology short stay unit

Main Article Content

Seshasayee Narasimhan MRCP (UK)
Katrina McKay RN
John Attia PhD, FRCP (C), FRACP

Keywords

short stay unit, procedure, discharge, cardiology, clinical safety

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate staff perceptions about working environment, efficiency and the clinical safety of a cardiovascular intervention short stay unit (SSU) during the first year of operation.


Design: Postal questionnaire.


Setting: Cardiac catheterisation laboratory (CCL), coronary care unit (CCU), general cardiology ward (GCW) and the short stay unit (SSU) of a tertiary referral hospital situated in the mid coastal region of NSW.


Subjects: Cardiologists (including visiting medical officers [VMO]), cardiology fellows, cardiology advanced trainees and nurses.


Results: Responses on the working environment of the SSU and the discharge process were statistically significant. A substantial proportion of both nurses and doctors had concerns about patient safety, even though no adverse events were formally recorded in the database.


Conclusions: Though the participants of the survey agree on the efficiency of the SSU in providing beds to the hospital, they disagree on aspects that are important in the functioning of the SSU, including the working environment, patient selection and clinical safety. The results highlight potential issues that could be improved or addressed and are relevant to the rollout of SSUs across NSW.

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