The Impact of Brief Text Messages on Critical Care Nurses’ Ability to Interpret Arrhythmia: A Randomized Controlled Trial



Mohannad Eid AbuRuz1, Fatma Refaat Ahmed2, 3, *
1 Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan
2 Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
3 Critical Care and Emergency Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt


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Creative Commons License
© 2023 AbuRuz and Ahmed

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Nursing, University of Sharjah, College of Health Sciences, Sharjah, UAE; Tel: +971-547687409; E-mail: fahmed@sharjah.ac.ae


Abstract

Background:

A lack of electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation competency could threaten patient safety, and there is an urgent need to improve nurses’ abilities to identify life-threatening arrhythmias.

Aim:

To check the hypothesis that Coronary Care Units (CCUs) nurses who received Short Message Service (SMS) data concerning irregular cardiac rhythms can better interpret cardiac arrhythmias than the control group.

Methods:

WhatsApp messages were sent to the intervention group two times a week for 10 weeks. At the baseline line, the test was given to both groups, while reassessment was done on the same day as the last WhatsApp SMS.

Results:

The intervention score increased after receiving SMS messages compared to the control group (M[SD]; 16.60 ± 2.23 vs. 11.40 ± 3.10, t=10.40, p <0.001).

Implications for Nursing:

Text messaging is a cost-effective, time-saving, and practical tool of mobile learning and enhance nurses’ ECG interpretation skills.

Conclusion:

The study demonstrated that sending SMS messages using WhatsApp is practical and useful for improving nurses’ cardiac arrhythmia interpretation skills.

Clinical Trial Study Registration Number:

NCT 05419554

Keywords: Arrhythmias, Cardiac rhythm interpretation, Critical care units, Nurses, Brief text messages, ECG.