Implementing Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program on a Specialty Nursing Unit.

Implementing Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program on a Specialty Nursing Unit.

Tezber et al. The Journal of Nursing Administration. 48(6):303–309, JUNE 2018

What is already known:

There are a lot of papers about new ERAS programmes being set up. This paper gives a lot of background to how this unit went about using their own patient outcome data to help set it up.

What this paper adds:

A really interesting paper talking through how this US institution set up their specialist HPB nursing unit, after root cause analysis identified a number of key reasons as to why their pancreaticoduodenectomy patients were staying longer than expected. The speciality unit, with dedicated trained staff also included ICU level care. Six months after setting up the unit an ERAS programme was designed and then fully implemented a year later. One of the interesting parts of this programme was an activity tracker that patients wore. A baseline level was measured preoperatively and then monitored up to 60 days post-op, and if the levels fall the ERAS specialist nurses can investigate the cause. The authors showed a good level of compliance with the ERAS elements, and with that a reduced hospital length of stay, reduced readmission rates and reduced costs.

Chris Jones, Guildford.