Compassionate extubation protocol to improve team communication and support in the neonatal intensive care unit

OBJECTIVE: Compassionate extubation (CE) can be stressful for staff and families in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Our quality improvement initiative developed and implemented a novel symptom management and family support checklist and post-debriefing template to improve team communication and staff support. STUDY DESIGN: An interprofessional team performed a needs assessment, determined key drivers and intervention steps, and implemented changes using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. Outcomes included nursing perception of good communication with the medical team, nursing assessment of patient comfort after CE, and frequency of post-event debrief. Outcomes were analyzed using time series design with 12 months baseline data and 6 months post-implementation monitoring. RESULT: Eighteen events were studied. Respondents endorsing “good” communication with the medical team increased by 60%, and debrief participation rate improved by 96%. CONCLUSION: Implementation of a CE checklist and post-event debriefing sheet was associated with increased rate of debriefs and improved team communication.