Thread by @JBIEBHC

We profile Yanni Wu & her impact story as part of our 25th anniversary celebrations. Read thread👇on the evidence-based project Yanni implemented on embedding pre-treatment assessment for patients with #BreastCancer undergoing chemotherapy into hospital policy. #WeAreJBI

Chemotherapy drugs can result in side effects such as renal toxicity which is why evidence-based guidelines state that comprehensive health assessments should be conducted prior to administration of chemotherapy.

Yanni Wu is an advanced research nurse at Nanfang Hospital. She conducted a clinical audit of pre-treatment assessment for patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy which indicated significant deficits in pre-treatment assessment nursing practice at Nanfang Hospital.

Yanni Wu applied the Getting Research into Practice (#GRiP) approach to implement her evidence-based project.

Project initiatives included:
- developing a comprehensive educational package;
- training nurses on how to assess patients prior to chemotherapy;
- developing a checklist that includes the audit criteria for nurses to make the assessment more convenient.

Stakeholder engagement was key to the project’s success. Leaders within Nanfang Hospital conducted an education program, and their active participation in the project was important to influence and encourage behaviour change.

The project resulted in significant increases in compliance with best practice criteria at the follow-up audit compared with the baseline audit. All 12 criteria achieved a minimum of 90% compliance, including 9 out of 12 criteria increasing from 0% to 90% compliance.

According to Yanni Wu, one of the main successes of the project was introducing psychosocial assessment for each patient before chemotherapy. With the introduction of a short screening tool, nurses are able to identify patients who needed to be followed up.

In the past 2 years since the project’s implementation, nearly 10% of patients have been identified as having psychological problems and have received psychotherapy in a timely manner.

Pre-treatment assessment is now standard nursing practice in the Breast Surgery Department at Nanfang Hospital. The hospital’s policy includes pre-assessment hospital policy and the assessments are incorporated into annual department evaluation indicators.

Six-monthly audits are conducted to check compliance. In June 2020 audit results showed that all 12 evidence based audit criteria achieved 100% compliance.

Following the project’s success Yanni Wu received funding in August 2020 from the Guangdong Health Commission to introduce the project into hospitals across Guangdong Province.

Read about the project in more detail in Yanni’s impact story, ‘Pre-treatment assessment for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy’. jbi.global/our_impact/sto…
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