Sepsis education plays a significant role throughout the health care continuum, from onboarding of new hires to discharging patients from the hospital.
This education is vitally necessary, given that about 1.7 million adults in the U.S. develop sepsis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At least 350,000 die from sepsis.
Subject matter experts and partners discussed merits of education in the final installment in the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements webinar series with the CDC, which can help health care facilities implement, monitor and optimize their sepsis programs and outcomes. This free continuing education webinar series was developed in collaboration with the AMA and CDC’s Project Firstline.
Education is one of the CDC’s seven core elements, which offer a blueprint to hospitals for building a successful sepsis program.
This element “speaks to education of clinicians, health care staff, patients, families and caregivers,” said Hallie Prescott, MD, associate professor in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Michigan and a staff physician at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
Priority examples for education sepsis may include specific training or education during the onboarding process for new staff and trainees, and annual sepsis education for all clinical staff, said Dr. Prescott.
Staff should also provide written and verbal sepsis education to patients, families or caregivers prior to hospital discharge, said Dr. Prescott, who recommended the CDC’s Get Ahead of Sepsis program as a resource for hospitals.
Onboarding new hires about sepsis
Jessica Aguilar and Alexis Wells, registered nurses from John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, discussed the multiple education modalities they use to promptly recognize sepsis and improve patient outcomes.
“For us in sepsis, we are the only Joint Commission disease-specific certified program in the nation that's a safety net county hospital,” said Aguilar, the program’s sepsis coordinator. The Level 1 trauma center is also home to the largest hospital-based family medicine residency program.
Onboarding new hires—including new residents and nurses—about sepsis is crucial, said Wells, noting that “being a part of their onboarding establishes a relationship early on. If you only get a few minutes with them, ensure you leave your contact information because they will use it later in their career.”
There’s also the ongoing traditional education that takes place after orientation.
“This includes committee and department meetings, one-on-one education, and taking every opportunity possible to provide resources so it is easy to do the right thing every time,” said Wells.
These settings allow opportunities to discuss fallouts from best practice, streamline processes on identifying and treating sepsis, and discuss new tools like the CDC's Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements Assessment Tool.
“One-on-one education is essential and cannot be overlooked,” said Wells.
Nurses are also trained in how to talk with patients about sepsis and post-sepsis syndrome.
“Patients need to know how to care for themselves after recovering from acute insult from sepsis. And we believe so strongly in this, that our perception of care and talking with the patients about post-sepsis syndrome is one of our Joint Commission metrics for certification,” Wells added.
Supporting care after discharge
Patients with sepsis can continue to struggle with their health after treatment. The webinar discusses the value of using navigators to deliver best-practice care for patients with sepsis around the time of hospital discharge and for 90 days after discharge.
Such nurse navigators can educate patients while they are still in the hospital and do some support and health literacy assessments before discharge. Additionally, these navigators can provide information on what to expect after hospitalization, call patients within 48 hours of discharge and set up regular follow up calls as needed.
