App aims to improve care coordination for critically ill patients

Editor's Note

A new app developed by researchers in Japan aims to improve care coordination for nurses involved in managing critically ill patients on life support. The findings were published January 25 in the Japan Journal of Nursing Science. 

Relying on the scoring system known as the Nurses' Care Coordinate Competency Scale (NCCCS), the app offers immediate feedback to nurses caring for critically ill patients on life support based on their responses related to frequency of care coordination.

The study included 318 ICU nurses from acute hospitals in Japan. The group that engaged in self-assessment and received feedback from the app showed an increase in the frequency of care coordination behaviors after one month, a contrast with the group that did not receive feedback. 

The group with feedback from the app also exhibited higher attention, confidence, and interest in learning about care coordination compared to the group without feedback. The feedback-receiving group also reported increase teamwork and enhance the quality of care. However, participants who had less experience managing critically ill patients did not exhibit this improvement. 

The researchers are working on translating the app into other languages and hope that it may provide a new resource for improving outcomes for critically ill patients.