Effective Screening for Pneumonia: A Challenge for the 21st Century

<p><strong>Objectives</strong>: To investigate the percentage of patients admitted to a local hospital with a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia (CAP), and to determine who among them qualify for the pneumonia vaccine, and what percentage appropriately or inappropriately received the vaccine prior to discharge.</p> <p><strong>Method</strong>: A retrospective quantitative design was utilized. The researcher identified fifty patients admitted to a local hospital with a diagnosis of CAP before a new screening process was implemented, and fifty after the new screening process was implemented. A retrospective review of patient records was used to determine what percentage of the population received the vaccine prior to discharge. Patients whose charts suggested similar characteristics were matched to allow for additional control. Data analysis was done with the use of statistics software. SPSS Version 16.0 for Windows.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: Prior to implementation of the new protocol, 20 percent of the patients admitted with a diagnosis of PNA were screened and received the vaccine prior to being discharged, w hile 80 percent of the patients admitted with a diagnosis of PNA were not screened; therefore, they did not receive the vaccine prior to being discharged. A review of patient records conducted after implementation of the new screening protocol, revealed</p> <p>that, out of the fifty charts surveyed, 40.4 percent were previously vaccinated, and 59.6 percent were eligible and did received the vaccination prior to discharge. The two groups were independent of one other, meaning that one chart was not in more than one group; therefore, their scores are not related. The exact confidence interval before the new protocol was implemented was 0.1003-0.3372. The exact confidence interval after the</p> <p>new protocol was implemented was 0.9275to 1.0000 which demonstrates the stability of both estimates. This difference between the vaccination rates before and after the new- screening protocol is statistically significant.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong>: The results of this investigation suggest that patients, nurses and other health care providers need to increase their knowledge of why screening and vaccination i-s the mainstay for the prevention of CAP. Further research is warranted to expand the investigation. Experts are now recommending that more people, including healthy elderly adults, be given the vaccine, particularly in light of the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nursing

Year

2008

Author dc:creator

• Mekonnen, Janet

• Nursing

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.dominican.edu/nursing-masters-theses/43

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.dominican.edu:nursing-masters-theses-1042