Healthcare Staff Knowledge Assessment of Common Medical Acronyms

Abstract

Background:

Acronyms in healthcare are used often but can present potential patient safety issues when staff are not familiar with the terminology. Previous studies regarding acronym use have demonstrated knowledge gaps for healthcare professionals. There are specific acronyms related to hospital-acquired conditions (HAC). The HAC workgroup at our institution collaborates with the national organization, Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS), to reduce and prevent these conditions. It was felt that many staff do not recognize some of the frequently used HAC acronyms. A staff survey to identify HAC acronyms was done to determine educational needs.

Methods:

The aim of this quality improvement study was to assess staff knowledge of commonly used HAC related acronyms in a pediatric healthcare setting. The local institutional review board determined the project was not human subject research. Respiratory therapists (RTs), nurses, and physicians were provided with a list of 13 HAC acronyms to identify without assistance. It was not specified that the acronyms were HAC related. The acronyms were HAC, SPS, catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), unplanned extubation (UPE), pressure injury (PI), central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), ventilator associated event (VAE), venous thromboembolism (VTE), viral respiratory illness (VRI), ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), surgical site infection (SSI), peripheral intravenous infiltration and extravasation (PIVIE) and adverse drug event (ADE). HAC workgroup members not involved in developing the survey also completed the survey for comparison. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results:

There were 65 participants including 35 nurses, 25 RTs and 5 physicians. No one was able to correctly identify all 13 acronyms. Overall, VAP (74%), VRI (69%) and CAUTI (62%) had the largest percentage of correct responses while SSI (8%), ADE (5%) and SPS (2%) had the least. Physicians had the most correct responses (46%) followed by nurses (41%) and RTs (17%). SSI was commonly identified as social security income by all disciplines. No RT identified VTE as the HAC related acronym. From the HAC workgroup, 6 nurses completed the survey with 99% of correct responses.

Conclusions:

Based on the survey results, education regarding HAC acronyms is warranted for all disciplines. VTE and SSI have additional definitions not related to HAC which could be easily confused. Disclosures: None