Trialling the Distress Thermometer tool on non-oncology general medical and surgical inpatients.

Abstract

Background: Risk assessment tools are intended to support nurses' decision-making in the continuous Nursing Process of comprehensive assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation for each patient in their care. While patient distress is common during periods of ill-health, tools to formally assess distress are not routinely used by nurses.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of the distress thermometer by nurses for general medical and surgical inpatients.

Methods: An audit of 2370 electronic medical records was used to extract data on risk assessment completion for adult patients admitted across three wards from December 2020 to March 2021. An online survey using the System Usability Scale and free-text comments collected data on nurses' perceptions of the Distress Thermometer.

Results: Only 33% of patients had the Distress Thermometer tool completed by nurses during patient risk assessment on their admission to the hospital ward (393/2370). Only 12.86% of nurses reported scores indicating acceptable usability of the Distress Thermometer in electronic medical records (greater than 68). Distress Thermometer completion was significant between wards (chi-square analysis X² (2, N = 2,370) = 84.902, p = <.001). Factors contributing to low usability included unnecessary addition to their workload and tool perceived as not useful to care planning.

Discussion: Nurses reported the Distress Thermometer was an unnecessary addition to their workload and not perceived to add any value to patient assessment in general medical and surgical inpatients.

Conclusion: Nursing risk assessments in electronic medical records carry a high workload burden. The perceived usability, usefulness and suitability for specific patient groups are important considerations for uptake and implementation of any additional tools.