Implementation of sepsis algorithm by nurses in the intensive care unit

Abstract

Sepsis is defined as a clinical syndrome consisting of a systemic inflammatory response associated to an infection, which may determine malfunction or failure of multiple organs. This research aims to verify the application of implementation of sepsis algorithm by nurses in the Intensive Care Unit and create an operational nursing assistance guide. This is an exploratory, descriptive study with quantitative approach. A data collection instrument based on relevant literature was elaborated, assessed, corrected and validated. The sample consisted of 20 intensive care unit nurses. We obtained satisfactory evaluations on nurses’ performance, but some issues did not reach 50% accuracy. We emphasize the importance of greater numbers of nurses getting acquainted and correctly applying the sepsis algorithm. Based on the above, an operational septic patient nursing assistance guide was created, based on the difficulties that arose vis-à-vis the variables applied in research and relevant literature.