Translating the evidence for emergency equipment and supplies into practice: an evidence implementation project in mental health care

Background: Successful life support depends on the availability and functioning of essential emergency equipment to deliver timely emergency care to patients. Well-established guidelines have advocated for the need to check and maintain emergency equipment. Objective: This project aimed to examine the current practices for managing emergency equipment. Methods: An evidence implementation project was undertaken utilizing the Joanna Briggs Institute's Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System (PACES) and Getting Research into Practice programmes (GRIP). Pre and post implementation audits were conducted in a mental health institution over 25 months. Strategies were implemented between audits to enhance adoption of the best available evidence regarding the checking and maintenance of emergency equipment. Results: The baseline audit data showed that adherence was lowest in ensuring the functional status of emergency equipment (53%), followed by conducting regular checks for functional status, using inventory; and documenting these checks (60%). In line with GRIP, barriers such as the lack of knowledge and skills regarding emergency equipment were addressed with town hall meetings, code blue drills and education sessions. Follow-up audit results showed improvement in all areas. The greatest improvement was with regards to the documentation of emergency equipment checks which improved by 18%, from 80% to 98%. Discussion: PACES and GRIP facilitated the translation of evidence into practice. Audits enabled the timely identification of potential lapses in the management of emergency equipment so that the barriers could be addressed, and strategies in line with the best available evidence regarding the checking and maintenance of emergency equipment were adopted.