Nurses' perceptions of point of care testing in critical care: A cross‐sectional survey

Background
Nurses working in critical care (intensive or high dependency care units) perform a multitude of tasks including point-of-care testing (POCT), where diagnostic tests are performed at or near a patient's bedside. POCT can speed up clinical decision-making, but errors can occur at any point in the pre-analytical phase.

Aim
To investigate nurses' perceptions of current POCT practice in critical care pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods
An online cross-sectional survey of critical care nurses undertaken 2019–2021. Nurses across Europe were invited to participate during a conference and via communication from professional organizations.

Results
A total of 158 critical care nurses responded to the survey. All respondents who stated their location reported being residents of the UK. Alongside challenges related to training and competence, frequency of sampling and sampling volumes were key concerns, seen to be associated with increased blood wastage and nursing workload, potentially increasing the potential for error, and leading to poorer patient and staff outcomes.

Conclusion
Results from this study highlight the impact of POCT on nurses' workload, patient care provision and staff wellbeing.

Relevance to Clinical Practice
Alongside exploring feasible and effective training models, innovative roles, which provide technical support, including undertaking POCT could enable nurses more time to provide care to patients and families. Any future changes in workforce allocation must, however, be fully evaluated from the perspective of both patient and staff outcomes.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Nurses' perceptions of point of care testing in critical care: A cross-sectional survey, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.12869. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.