Oxygen Safety at Home Created by Shelby DeLoach Student Nurse at the University of South Florida

Spinal Cord Home Care  Part of the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital  Spinal cord patients that include quadriplegics, paraplegics, tetraplegics  Patients range in age to early 50s to late 90s.  Socioeconomic status  Various ethnic backgrounds

Health Needs  Oxygen home safety guidelines for patients and caregivers.  The main source of focuses have previously been urinary tract infections, wound care and wound prevention.

Goals & Rationale for the Service Learning Project  The overall goal for this lesson is provide patients and caregivers more information regarding oxygen safety at home.  This presentation can be used to teach patient’s about proper safety that needs to be conducted in the home to prevent fires, harm to themselves, or others.  The Spinal Cord Home Health team can use the pamphlet that I have created to distribute to patients as a patient education tool.

Objectives  Patients, providers, and other participants will be able to teach back and explain two safety risks involved in oxygen in the home by the conclusion of the presentation.  Patients, providers, and other participants will be able to successfully answer 80% of the questions correctly on the questionnaire at the conclusion of the presentation.  Patients, providers, and other participants will be able to verbalize/report that they feel more comfortable or have maintained the same comfort level with the use of home oxygen at the conclusion of the presentation.

Objectives  This can be measured with the likert scale based on comfort levels from 0-10, with 0 being completely uncomfortable and 10 being completely comfortable.  This is the scale that will be used:  1 = Strongly disagree  2 = disagree  3 = undecided or neutral  4 = agree  5 = strongly agree

Healthy People 2020  Patients should be educated prior to going home on oxygen.  Patients should continue to be educated and evaluated constantly.  Safety is a big concern for patients who require tools that are traditionally used in a clinical setting.  Oxygen can be very dangerous in the home if proper precautions are not taken.

Implementing the SLP project  Who:  The spinal cord home care staff  One patient  Where:  At the office  In a patient’s home in Tampa, Florida  How did I present it?  Pre-Test  Explanation of the Pamphlet  Post-Test

Pre-Test for the Patient

Pre-Test for the Provider

Presentation Visual Cover Page

Presentation Visual

 References  More Info

Post-Test for Patient

P0st-Test for the Provider

Results for Pre-Test

Results for P0st-Test

Likert Scale Results for both Pre-Test and P0st-Test  There was likert scale on both the pre-test and the post-test  For both of the survey’s the providers either agree or strongly agreed to the following:  Pre-Test Questions:  Describe your comfort leveling instructing a patient on how to safely use oxygen in their home?  Do you expect to learn anything today that you did not already know regarding oxygen safety?  Post-Test Question  Do you feel comfortable instructing a patient on how to safely use oxygen in their home?  Did this presentation teach you anything new that you did not already know regarding oxygen safety?

Modifications  I added to the pamphlet that “e-cigarettes are still cigarettes”  Changed some of the wording on both the Pre-Test and Post- Test

What can be done in the future?  Continue to make sure that patients are educated before discharge or going home with oxygen  Evaluate the readiness for a patient to use oxygen independently

Impact of Healthy Policy  According to the World Health Organization:  “Health policy refers to decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society. An explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future which in turn helps to establish targets and points of reference for the short and medium term. It outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people.”  As mentioned previously, evaluation and education of patients is vital in order to keep patients safe.  The goal here being that patients can use oxygen in their home correctly and safely.

References  NIOSH Home International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC): Oxygen. (2014, July 1). Retrieved February 18, 2015, from  Oxygen safety: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2014, April 26). Retrieved February 18, 2015, from s/ htm  Sandberg, D., & Fleetham, J. (2013). Home oxygen therapy in British Columbia. British Columbia Medical Journal, 55(3),