EPA-AC©
From NursingWiki
ePA-AC© (“ergebnisorientiertes PflegeAssessment AcuteCare” / outcome-oriented nursing assessment Acute Care) is a screening instrument, designed to assess nursing outcomes.
Background
Valid nursing diagnostics is ineffective without the use of assessment and/or screening instruments (e.g. Gordon 1994; Ehrenberg & Ehnfors 1999; Bartholomeyczik 2003). Appropriate instruments developed for acute care are still missing to date. Therefore, the Department for Nursing Research and Development at the HSK, Dr. Horst Schmidt Klinik in Wiesbaden, Germany, has developed a screening instrument referred to as ePA-AC© (“ergebnisorientiertes PflegeAssessment AcuteCare” / outcome-oriented nursing assessment Acute Care), designed to assess nursing outcomes (cf. Hunstein, Dintelmann et al. 2005). The ePA-AC© has been developed to record the essential aspects of nursing care requirements in the acute setting and to measure their degree of severity. In its function as a screening instrument it collects signs and symptoms of nursing diagnoses and therefore supports the diagnostic nursing process, the measurement of selected nursing sensitive outcomes, and process control. Furthermore, ePA-AC© data can be used in terms of a Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) as economic and epidemiological operating figures.
The ePA-AC© consists of 50 items in 10 categories and contains in reference to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF, WHO 2001) data on activities and participation (N = 17 items), body functions (N = 16 items), body structures (N = 1 item), and contextual information (N = 16 items).
Publications
- Hunstein D, Dintelmann Y, Sippel B. (2005): Developing a screening instrument as a standardized assessment of signs and symptoms concerning basic nursing care needs in hospital nursing care. In: N Oud et al.: ACENDIO 2005 - Proceedings of the 5th European Conference of ACENDIO. Bern, Göttingen, Hans Huber: 396-402
- Hunstein D, Fiebig M, Sippel B, Dintelmann Y (2007): Clincal Testing of ePA-AC, a screeninginstrument designed to relevant assess signs and symptoms of nursing care dependency in acute care clinics. In: N Oud et al. (Eds.): ACENDIO 2006 - Proceedings of the 6th European Conference of ACENDIO. Bern, Göttingen, Hans Huber (in print)
