S0573 Online Educational Module Improves Knowledge of Nurses on Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Colonoscopy is the gold standard for screening for CRC. The effectiveness of colonoscopy is limited by the adequacy of bowel preparation. This adequacy has been reported to be worse for in-patients compared to out-patients. Nurses are essential in providing bowel cleansing agents and instructions for hospitalized patients before colonoscopy. This study aims to assess and improve the knowledge of nurses on bowel preparation for colonoscopy. METHODS: An educational module on bowel prep before colonoscopy was created using PowerPoint slides. There were 20 slides. Fifteen questions were included in the survey. Participants were asked to complete the survey before and after completing the module. The module and survey questions were placed in the NetLearning® environment of the intranet of the hospital. HealthcareSource NetLearning is a proprietary learning management system specialized for healthcare facilities. The system allows hospital staff through secured login to access professional development courses. The course was titled Bowel Preparation (2020 Annual Education). A minimum post-test score of 80% was required to pass the course. RESULTS: A total of 1,107 nurses participated in the survey representing 81% of the staff that received the survey. The average time to complete the module and survey questions was 4 minutes. Overall, the average score improved from 87% pre-test to 93% post-test (P < 0.0001). The ability to correctly identify different types of bowel cleansing agents improved from 75.8% to 94.3%. Knowledge of the different ways of consuming bowel cleansing agents improved from 54.3% to 83.6%. Only 56.2% of nurses knew how to carry out a split-dose bowel preparation regimen; which increased to 80.1% after the educational module. There was no difference in identifying readiness for colonoscopy based on rectal effluent (99.4% pre-test vs 99.8% post-test). CONCLUSION: Knowledge of nurses on the different ways of consuming bowel cleansing agents before colonoscopy and the split-dose regimen is inadequate. A simple online educational module significantly improved the knowledge of nurses on bowel preparation for colonoscopy.