NR02 - Implementation of a standardized care pathway for ureteral stents patients across the continuum of the acute and ambulatory setting: A quality improvement project.

Ureteral stents are one of the most used urologic devices to create and preserve ureteral patency. Side effects after ureteral stent placement have a high prevalence, and stent related pain has been reported to affect over 80% of patients. This Quality Improvement Project aimed to develop a standardized care pathway through education and pharmacological management for patients after ureteral stent placement. Specific goals included reducing readmission rates to the emergency department (ED), reducing the patient’s phone calls to the urology clinic, and improve patient satisfaction. The protocol developed for the project included discharging patients with an alpha- blocker, an anti-cholinergic, pain medications and post-procedure educational material. An educational presentation was provided to the nurses and stakeholders about the protocol. The outcome measures examined were the number of patients returning to the ED and the number of phone calls to the urology clinic after ureteral stent placement. The findings demonstrated a positive trend towards a decreased number of patients returning to the ED and the number of calls to the urology clinic after the procedure. The findings showed that a standardized plan of care can reduce the number of ED returns, reduce the number of phone calls to the urology clinic and improve care.

Learning Outcome: After completing this learning activity, the participant will be able to assess innovations being used by other professionals in the specialty and evaluate the potential of implementing the improvements into practice.