Date of Doctor of Nursing Practice Project Completion
Fall 12-5-2025
Faculty Advisor
Robert C. Coghlan
Abstract
Purpose This quality improvement (QI) project is focused on enhancing nurses’ adherence to the hospital guidelines to decrease VTE occurrences.
Background The project was implemented in 35bed CVICU in the Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas where has about 150 registered nurses are employed.
Methodology The VTE prevention checklist was used as an intervention and distributed to nurses to use every shift and collected after shift. Random audit was performed once a week. Collected checklist completion percentage and audit results were aggregated by week and presented by Run chart. The monthly VTE occurrences are obtained from Quality and Safety department.
Results Nurses’ compliance with utilizing checklist was 15.7%. Patient SCD compliance increased to 84% from 78%. Monthly VTE occurrences decreased by 1 to 2 from 3 to 7.
Implications The project duration was for 10 weeks due to delayed approval process. Patient SCD compliance didn’t meet the goal, however, patient SCD compliance increased close to hospital goals when nurses’ checklist compliance increased proportionally. The goal of decreasing VTE occurrences to less than four cases per month was achieved. Therefore, utilizing checklist to remind nurses to enhance their compliance with the hospital protocol was effective. Ongoing efforts will explore targeted strategies to improve nurses’ adherence to the checklist.
Keywords
Keywords: quality improvement, VTE, CVICU, checklist, nurses’ compliance with guidelines, SCD compliance
Recommended Citation
Deokhwa Kim BSN, RN, CCRN, "Improving Nurses’ Compliance with VTE Protocol Using a Checklist in the CVICU" (2025). Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract. 186.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dnp_abstract/186