Utilization of Alderete’s Score Chart in Monitoring Post Anesthesia Patients: Are Nurses Utilizing the Monitoring Tool?

Abstract

Background: Anesthesia and surgical techniques have advanced leading to improvement of patients’ care after surgery. Alderete’s scoring tool was introduced in May 2018 at Kenyatta National Hospital to determine the suitability of patients for discharge to the post-surgical wards. Introduction of the monitoring tool was necessary due to the fact that patients were deteriorating after anesthesia after developing complications. There was also no standard monitoring tool that had been adopted. Alderete’s scoring system includes assessing a patient’s responsiveness, activity, respiration, blood pressure and oxygen saturation level. Since the introduction of the monitoring tool, no study has been done to assess its utilization in monitoring patients. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among nurses working in post anesthesia care unit of Kenyatta National Hospital. A total of 73 nurses were sampled for the study. Data was collected using interviewer-administered questionnaires and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Results: The nurses comprised of 56% females and 45% males. The mean age of the participants was 38 years. There was no significant relationship between the use of Alderete’s score chart and level of training at confidence interval of p=0.210. However 85.7% of BScN trained were able to use the chart followed by 82.4% of KRPON trained nurses. This implied that those with higher training understood the importance of using the Alderete’s chart more than the lower level of training. There was significant statistical evidence at p=0.028 that the use of Alderete’s score chart depended on training of staffs and those who were trained were 1.488 times more likely to use the tool than those who were not trained. Conclusion: Alderete’s score chart was being used by nurses to monitor patients even though most of the nurses had not been trained on its utilization and therefore did not understand the components of the chart. Staff shortage and lack of supplies also hindered utilization of the monitoring tool.