Effects of training of new nurses using the Primary Neurosurgical Life Support (PNLS) guidebook

Abstract

  In neurosurgical emergency, minimizing secondary brain injury is important for improvement of functional outcomes, and evaluation and stabilization of the general condition is important as primary treatment for this purpose. However, educational opportunities are limited for nurses to learn how to deal with a neurosurgical emergency and sudden changes in neurosurgical patients. Here, we report a method for training of new nurses in a neurosurgery ward at our hospital, using a Primary Neurosurgical Life Support (PNLS)‒based guidebook. Training of new nurses in the neurosurgery ward was performed three times using the PNLS guidebook, and the level of achievement (self‒confidence) of responses to sudden changes in condition was surveyed using a questionnaire before the first training and after the third training. The results of the surveys before and after training of 7 new nurses who participated in all three workshops were analyzed. The self‒confidence of a ‘response to a sudden change in condition’ significantly improved after training (p＝0.045). The most frequent ‘cause of difficulty in dealing with sudden changes in neurosurgical patients’ was ‘I do not know what is happening’ (57.1%). Training of new nurses using a PNLS guidebook improved self‒confidence in responses to sudden changes in the condition of neurosurgical patients. The reason for the inability of new nurses to deal with sudden changes in condition with self‒confidence was a lack of understanding of the pathology of diseases and sudden changes in neurosurgical emergency cases. Our results suggest that the PNLS guidebook may be a useful tool for training of new nurses in the pathology of diseases associated with neurosurgical emergency and dealing with sudden changes in the condition of patients with these diseases.