An update on the E-LINK study

Written by Paul Fulbrook Friday, 19 December 2008 21:30

An update on the E-LINK study by Paul Fulbrook, Europe: Levels of Intensive-Care Nurses’ Knowledge Survey(E-LINKS)

Background
The purpose of this EfCCNa study is to obtain baseline information about the level of knowledge of intensive care nurses in Europe. This will enable comparisons to be made between nurses from different countries and with different levels of experience. It will also enable identification of strong and weak areas of critical care nursing knowledge, providing information which can then be used to inform international curriculum development. The information gained in this study will help to inform the design and development of common standards for education programs across Europe and facilitate better understanding of nurses’ abilities in relation to mobility of the intensive care nursing workforce. As a way of influencing policy, the findings of this study will be disseminated widely throughout Europe, and in particular to government ministers of the European Union. Furthermore, EfCCNa will use the findings of this study to inform their work with their professional associations and educational bodies to develop common education standards for critical care nurses in Europe.

Data collection
The study will use a specifically designed knowledge assessment tool to assess the level of knowledge of nurses working in adult general intensive care units. The E-LINKS tool was adapted for use in Europe, from the Intensive Care Hundred Item Test (I-HIT), which was originally developed in 1994 in Australia. The E-LINKS assessment tool contains 100 questions about intensive care within 11 areas of knowledge, which reflect the intensive care knowledge requirements for contemporary nursing practice. EfCCNa Council representatives will be participating in the study as National Co-ordinators. They will be responsible for recruiting the intensive care units (ICUs) in their country. The E-LINKS assessment tool will be available in 16 languages and data will be collected using an on-line survey. Twenty countries have agreed to take part in the survey (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom) and 20 different general ICUs, in each participating country will be invited to participate. Each ICU will recruit six nurses.

Progress to date
A research assistant – Ben SideBottom, who is based in Australia - has been appointed to work with the Research Team. All the questionnaires have now been translated professionally into the relevant languages and have been checked for accuracy by EfCCNa National Co-ordinators. The final version of each questionnaire is currently being prepared. The website that will be used for data collection will be ready for testing in early 2009 and data collection should commence in February/March 2009. The EfCCNa Research Team

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (EfCCNa Fellow, Australia)
Dr John Albarran (EfCCNa Director of Research, UK)
Ms Birte Baktoft (EfCCNa Fellow, Denmark)
Mr Ben Sidebottom (Research Assistant, Australia)

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