The proposed theory is that for patients presenting with chest pain, reducing the door-to-diagnosis time contributes to timely intervention and safety of the patient. Using the Conceptual-Theoretical- Empirical Model (CTE), several elements can be deduced and interlinked. Firstly, the general concept is that patients who experience chest problems need timely medical attention to save their lives or enhance their wellbeing. The concept was developed after the realization that patients with chest problems (many of whom suffer from myocardial infarction) risk their lives because of the time they take before they are diagnosed (DeVon et al., 2016). It is only after diagnosis that the intervention efforts start. Besides, it is only after diagnosis that healthcare providers can establish whether their condition is dire or not and respond appropriately.
Several authors observe that a lot of time is wasted from the time a patient is admitted to health care facilities to when the patient is diagnosed. The specific operational definitions in the proposed theory are door-to-diagnosis time, and timely interventions. The door-to-diagnosis time is defined as the time it takes for a patient to be diagnosed immediately after he or she arrives at a healthcare facility (McCabe et al., 2012). Timely interventions are the efforts or measures healthcare providers take to alleviate the patient’s condition. Therefore, the proposed theory suggests that there is a relationship between door-to-diagnosis time with timely interventions. Empirical indicators in this case are the nursing procedures and tools (Butts, n.d). For instance, there is a recommended door-to-diagnosis time, and testing of the theory will establish how adhering or non-compliance to the recommended time affects patients with chest pain.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Measuring the propositions and concepts of the theory in a research study involves thorough fieldwork. Patients admitted to the emergency department suffer from many conditions; hence it is not prudent to single out those with chest pain. The best practice is to go through clinical records and establish the time patient details were recorded, and when the diagnosis was conducted (assuming the healthcare providers record time at each stage) (Taghizadeh, Taghipour, & Heydari, 2018). All records will involve only those patients with chest pain from the time they were admitted up to the intervention efforts provided. The aim will be to measure the door-to-diagnosis time and compare with the outcome of the intervention efforts.
References
Butts, J. (n.d). Components and Levels of Abstraction in Nursing Knowledge. http://samples.jbpub.com/9781284041347/9781284041347_ch05_pass02.pdf
DeVon, H. A., Hogan, N., Ochs, A. L., & Shapiro, M. (2016). Time to treatment for acute coronary syndromes: the cost of indecision. The Journal of cardiovascular nursing , 25 (2), 106.
McCabe, J. M., Armstrong, E. J., Hoffmayer, K. S., Bhave, P. D., MacGregor, J. S., Hsue, P., ... & Ganz, P. (2012). Impact of door-to-activation time on door-to-balloon time in primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions: a report from the Activate-SF registry. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes , 5 (5), 672-679.
Taghizadeh, M., Taghipour, R., & Heydari, K. (2018). Key Performance Indicators of Chest Pain Management in Emergency Department; a Letter to the Editor. Emergency , 6 (1).
