Factors influencing nurses' decision to activate critical care response team: The nursing perspective

Abstract

Background: Critical care response team (CCRT) intervenes quickly in life-threatening situations to reduce adverse outcomes and improve patient safety. Nurses play an essential role in CCRT activation. Despite clearly satisfied criteria, there have been instances where nurses have failed to activate CCRT. Objective: This study examined the factors that influence nurses' CCRT activation. Methodology: The proposed study was done in an acute health-care setting using a cross-sectional survey approach. The study participants included 206 nurses working in inpatient care units. Nursing staff in intensive care units, pediatric intensive care units, operating rooms, outpatient departments, and main emergency rooms were excluded from the study. Results: Moreover, half of the majority (54.4%) of the 206 responders are knowledgeable about CCRT activation. Nearly 83 (40.3%) choose not to activate CCRT due to fear of being chastised. Nurses were more reliant on physicians to trigger CCRT. The activation score significantly correlated with the nurse participants' job title and working unit. Conclusions: Nursing staff avoided using the CCRT for fear of being blamed despite having a positive impression. They are primarily reliant on physicians to initiate CCRT. In addition to education and training that engages all health-care workers, hospitals should empower nurses to reduce barriers and improve CCRT activation.