Factors influencing the continuity of evidence-based practice in perioperative airway management for elderly patients with fractures: A qualitative study

Abstract

BACKGROUND More and more evidence-based practices are emerging, but researchers mostly focus on short-term effects, resulting in evidence-based practices not being applied in the clinic in the long term. In this study, we took the evidence-based practice of perioperative airway management in elderly fracture patients as an example and adopted a descriptive phenomenological approach to understand the influencing factors of its sustainability to provide a reference basis for promoting the continuity of evidence-based practice in the clinic. AIM To explore factors influencing the persistence of evidence-based practice in perioperative airway management in elderly patients with fractures. METHODS This study was qualitative research. Nine nurses who implemented evidence-based practice in the orthopedic ward of a tertiary comprehensive hospital in Shanghai from September 2023 to October 2023 were selected using purposive sampling as research subjects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with them, and the data were analyzed using the Colaizzi phenomenological analysis method based on the three dimensions and ten factors of the NHS sustainability model. RESULTS Three main themes and ten subthemes were identified: Process aspects (benefits to patients, benefits to nurses, lack of follow-up, complex processes); staff aspects (insufficient human resources, inadequate training and education, lack of leadership support); and organizational environment aspects (inadequate infrastructure, poor patient compliance, poor doctor cooperation). CONCLUSION Human resources, training and education, leadership support, infrastructure, and patient-physician collaboration are important factors influencing the sustainability of evidence-based practice for perioperative airway management in older patients with fractures.