Implementing a Clinical Practice Guideline on Opioid-Induced Advancing Sedation and Respiratory Depression.

Background: Opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) is a serious adverse reaction associated with opioid administration.

Local Problem: The purpose of this quality improvement study was to evaluate the impact of implementing a clinical practice guideline for OIRD in a medical-surgical setting lacking standardized monitoring techniques and reporting criteria for patients receiving opioid analgesia.

Methods: An American Society for Pain Management Nursing protocol was implemented in 4 medical/surgical units. The impact on OIRD-related nurse knowledge, documentation, and opioid-related rapid response calls was measured pre- and postimplementation.

Results: Nurse OIRD-related knowledge significantly increased. The number of naloxone administrations associated with prior intravenous opioid analgesic administration did not significantly change. However, there was a significant decrease in the postimplementation number of respiratory distress-related rapid response calls.

Conclusions: Implementation of the American Society for Pain Management Nursing guidelines had a positive impact on knowledge, documentation, early intervention of OIRD, and the number of opioid-related rapid response calls.