Implementing nursing best practice guidelines: Impact on patient referrals

BMC Nursing

Table 4 Summary of pre and post-implementation differences in referral outcomes by BPG

BPG		Asthma $\bar{x}$ (SD)	Breast-feeding $\bar{x}$ (SD)	DDD $\bar{x}$ (SD)	Smoking Cessation $\bar{x}$ (SD)	Venous Leg Ulcer $\bar{x}$ (SD)	Diabetes Foot Care $\bar{x}$ (SD)
Nurses' Questionnaire
# of items – familiarity with referral source		5	5	3	5	2 + 7 ¹	7
Nurses' familiarity with referral source (range 0–5)	Pre	2.03 (0.7)	2.51 (1.0)	3.33 (0.9)	2.13 (0.9)	4.14 (.81) 2.98 (.89)	2.59 (.78)
	Post	2.54 (0.9)**	2.74 (1.04)*	3.61 (1.1)*	2.9 (0.9)**	4.08 (.89) 3.78 (.85)**	3.13 (1.01)**
# of items – patient referrals made		4	3	3	3	9	3+4 ¹
Patient referrals in past month by nurses (range 0–1)	Pre	0.23 (0.3)	0.20 (0.23)	0.29 (0.3)	0.22 (0.2)	0.28 (.26)	0.25 (.27) 0.17 (.20)
	Post	0.85 (.03)**	0.23 (0.24)	0.41 (0.4)*	0.25 (0.29)	0.36 (.26)	0.36 (.34) 0.32 (.30)**
Chart Audit
# of referral sources		-	-	3	7	17	-
Referrals documented (range 0–1)	Pre	-	-	0.11 (.18)	0 (0)	0.15 (.08)
	Post			0.13 (.22)	0.04 (.13)	0.17 (.07)
Patient Interviews
# of items – information about referral sources		6	11	-	7	-	8
Patient reports of having been given information in hospital about referral sources (range 0–1)	Pre	0.20 (.33)	0.44 (.18)	-	0.31 (.27)	-	0.12 (.13)
	Post	0.38 (.35)	0.47 (.18)		0.18 (.18)		0.13 (.18)
# of items – contact with referral sources		7	12				8
Patient reports of telephoning, visiting or receiving assistance from referral sources (range 0–1)	Pre	.23 (.13)	.12 (.07)	-	-	-	0.08 (.11)
	Post	.25 (.15)	.13 (.08)				0.09 (.10)

Notes: * p < .05
** p <.001
¹ Two-factor solutions were found. Pre- and post-implementation scores are provided for each of the factors.

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