Emergency nurses' opinions regarding paediatric fever: the effect of an evidence-based education program Considine, Julie and Brennan, Denise 2006, Emergency nurses' opinions regarding paediatric fever: the effect of an evidence-based education program, Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 101-111, doi: 10.1016/j.aenj.2006.03.005. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Emergency nurses' opinions regarding paediatric fever: the effect of an evidence-based education program Author(s) Considine, Julie orcid.org/0000-0003-3801-2456 Brennan, Denise Journal name Australasian emergency nursing journal : AENJ Volume number 9 Issue number 3 Start page 101 End page 111 Publisher Elsevier Ltd. Place of publication Amsterdam, Netherlands Publication date 2006-09 ISSN 1574-6267 Keyword(s) emergency nursing pediatrics fever decision making Summary Introduction: The beliefs and opinions of individual nurses are key factors in clinical decisions. Emergency nurses’ clinical decisions related to paediatric fever establish emergency department norms, provide role-modelling for both peers and parents, underpin clinical management of febrile children, and influence fever management advice given to parents. Aim: This study aimed to examine: (i) the opinions of emergency nurses regarding paediatric fever, and (ii) the effect of an evidence-based education program on the opinions of emergency nurses regarding paediatric fever. Method: This study used a prospective pre-test/post-test design. The primary outcome measure was emergency nurses’ opinions measured using the ‘General Opinions about Fever Management in Children’ survey. The intervention for the study was two tutorials. Pre-test data was collected in June 2005 and post-test data was collected during August 2005. Results: Thirty-one emergency nurses participated in the study. There were a number of positive changes in emergency nurses’ opinions regarding paediatric fever as a function of an evidence-based educational intervention. Major domains of change were relationship between temperature and illness severity/risk of harm, use and effects of antipyretic medication and febrile convulsions.  Conclusion: Emergency nurses are an important source of information for parents leaving the emergency department with a febrile child. Opinions can be a major influence in nurses’ clinical decisions and many fever  management strategies used by health care professionals are reflective of individual beliefs rather than the best available evidence. The results of this study showed a number of positive changes in emergency nurses’ opinions regarding paediatric fever as a function of an evidence-based educational intervention. Language eng DOI 10.1016/j.aenj.2006.03.005 Field of Research 111003 Clinical Nursing: Secondary (Acute Care) HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2006, College of Emergency Nursing Australasia Ltd. Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30004200 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Nursing and Midwifery Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 22 Jan 2009, 13:14:03 EST Fri, 09 Apr 2010, 14:44:45 EST Tue, 04 Jun 2013, 11:14:52 EST Fri, 10 Oct 2014, 08:17:21 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 7 times in TR Web of Science Cited 8 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 1021 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 07 Jul 2008, 09:14:46 EST