The purpose of the quality improvement initiative
Aromatherapy using essentials oils is a therapy which is commonly employed by health care providers in a medical context. Aromatherapy is a practice which has a long history and people began studying and using it thousands of years ago. The proposed aromatherapy involves evaporating oils using a diffuser allowing patients to inhale them and applying essential oils topically. The purpose of the current quality improvement initiative is to relieve pain and promotes relaxation among patients before and after surgery by utilizing aromatherapy in a recovery room setting. Such an initiative can be easily implemented in any recovery room since it does not require any special equipment to be installed. Moreover, extensive research on the topic of aromatherapy has provided sufficient evidence in support of the use of such a treatment.
The target population or audience
As mentioned above, the target audience of the initiative are patients kept in the recovery room. The first type of patients includes those who are waiting for their surgery to take place and might experience anxiety and pain as a result. The second type of patients is those who have already undergone surgery and have to rest properly in order to accelerate the recovery process.
The benefits of the quality improvement initiative
Aromatherapy has a variety of benefits which have been discovered by scientists and researchers over the years. The main positive effects of applying aromatherapy include reduction of pain and various body aches such as muscular ones, a decrease in anxiety, depression, stress, and agitation, relief of insomnia and fatigue (Brazier, 2017). Basically, essential oils, when evaporated or applied, are capable of improving the well-being of people and helping them to cope with their physical and mental problems. Therefore, aromatherapy constitutes an effective and efficient way of facilitating the recovery process of patients or simply assisting them in receiving relief from their ailments.
As already mentioned, aromatherapy using the method of evaporation has been studied extensively, and there is evidence in support of its utilization. For instance, a study which introduced an intervention in the form of a hand massage with an application of lavender oil has found that aromatherapy was effective in reducing acute pain (Lakhan, Sheafer, & Tepper, 2016). Such results indicate that aromatherapy would be a reasonable method of therapy in a recovery room because patients who are kept there often experience acute pain before and after surgeries.
The lavender oil used in the aforementioned research also has been found to possesses other positive effects on people’s well-being apart from pain reduction. Studies also suggest that the lavender oil has anxiolytic and anticonvulsive effects, in other words, it decreases anxiety and is capable of preventing seizures (Koulivand, Ghadiri, & Gorji, 2013). Such properties of the lavender oil are beneficial for patients in recovery rooms, especially those with neurological disorders who are waiting for surgery. Apart from the lavender oil, there are many other essential oils which possess numerous positive health effects. For example, according to research, inhalation of the geranium oil by patients with myocardial infarction has been found to reduce anxiety and stabilize the mood of the participants (Shirzadegan et al., 2017). Therefore, the application of geranium oil is as part of aromatherapy also can yield positive results on the patients in a recovery room who are concerned about their surgery’s success.
The interprofessional collaboration that would be required to implement the quality improvement initiative
In order to establish comprehensive aromatherapy in the recovery room, efforts on the part of multiple professionals are required. Aromatherapist is the specialist who must educate all nurses on the essential oils’ application and to provide advice on which oil must be utilized under which circumstances. There must also be different nurses possessing skills both in topical application and evaporation of essential oils. Some patients might prefer to simply inhale essential oils’ fumes while other individuals require an accompanying massage, the hospital must satisfy such a demand. Finally, there must also be a specialist who will be tasked with measuring aromatherapy’s impact to ascertain that the intervention is effective.
The cost or budget justification
The cost of aromatherapy is quite moderate and does not imply spending large sums of money. Essential oils themselves are rather inexpensive, and, for instance, a bottle of lavender oil can cost $10 on average for a 10ml bottle. Additional costs may relate to the hiring of a trained aromatherapist for conducting several workshops for nurses on the essential oils’ utilization in practice. Thus, the total monthly cost of aromatherapy can be maintained at the level of $500. Such a price is not large, especially when taking into consideration the positive effects of aromatherapy which can be achieved.
The basis upon which the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated
The quality improvement initiative in question will be evaluated based on surveys of the patients before aromatherapy is performed and after. A nurse tasked with assessing the well-being of patients must ask them about their physical and mental state changes. Additionally, such a nurse must also note whether there are any reductions in the amount of analgesics and antiemetics given to patients. Moreover, a decrease in the occurrence of delirium, outbursts, and seizures in patients in the recovery room must also be measured.
References
Brazier, Y. (2017). Aromatherapy: What you need to know. MedcialNewsToday. Web.
Koulivand, P. H., Ghadiri, M., & Gorji, A. (2013). Lavender and the nervous system. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 1–10. Web.
Lakhan, S. E., Sheafer, H., & Tepper, D. (2016). The Effectiveness of Aromatherapy in Reducing Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pain research and treatment, 1–13. Web.
Shirzadegan, R., Gholami, M., Hasanvand, S., Birjandi, M., & Beiranvand, A. (2017). Effects of geranium aroma on anxiety among patients with acute myocardial infarction: A triple-blind randomized clinical trial. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 29, 201–206. Web.