Implementation of Medical Research Findings through Insulin Protocols: Initial Findings from an Ongo...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteiligte: Longo, Bernadette, Weinert, Craig, Fountain, T. Kenny
In: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 37, 2007, 4, S. 435-452
veröffentlicht:
SAGE Publications
Medientyp: Artikel, E-Artikel
weitere Informationen
Umfang: 435-452
ISSN: 1541-3780
0047-2816
DOI: 10.2190/v986-k02v-519t-721j
veröffentlicht in: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Sprache: Englisch
Schlagwörter:
Kollektion: SAGE Publications (CrossRef)
Inhaltsangabe

<jats:p> Medical personnel in hospital intensive care units routinely rely on protocols to deliver some types of patient care. These protocol documents are developed by hospital physicians and staff to ensure that standards of care are followed. Thus, the protocol document becomes a de facto standing order, standing in for the physician's judgment in routine situations. This article reports findings from Phase I of an ongoing study exploring how insulin protocols are designed and used in intensive care units to transfer medical research findings into patient care “best practices.” We developed a taxonomy of document design elements and analyzed 29 insulin protocols to determine their use of these elements. We found that 93% of the protocols used tables to communicate procedures for measuring glucose levels and administering insulin. We further found that the protocols did not adhere well to principles for designing instructions and hypothesized that this finding reflected different purposes for instructions (training) and protocols (standardizing practice). </jats:p>