Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are preventable complications of hospitalization. An interdisciplinary team developed a curriculum to increase awareness of the presence of indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) in hospitalized patients, addressed practical, primarily nurse-controlled inpatient risk-reduction interventions, and promoted the use of the IUC labels ("tags"). Five thirty-minute educational sessions were cycled over three daily nursing shifts on two inpatient medical floors over a 1-year period; participants were surveyed (n = 152) to elicit feedback and provide real-time insight on the learning objectives. Nurse self-reported IUC tagging was early and sustained; after the IUC tag was introduced, there was a significant increase in tagging reported by the end of the block of educational sessions (from 46.2% to 84.6%, P = 0.001). Early engagement combined with a targeted educational initiative led to increased knowledge, changes in behavior, and renewed CAUTI awareness in hospitalized patients with IUCs. The processes employed in this small-scale project can be applied to broader, hospitalwide initiatives and to large-scale initiatives for healthcare interventions. As first-line providers with responsibility for the placement and daily maintenance of IUCs, nurses are ideally positioned to implement efforts addressing CAUTIs in the hospital setting.
Written by:
Yoon B, McIntosh SD, Rodriguez L, Holley A, Faselis CJ, Liappis AP Are you the author?
Medical Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 50 Irving Street, NW 4A155, Washington, DC 20422, USA
Reference: Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis. 2013;2013:405041. (Epub 2013 Mar 6)
doi: 10.1155/2013/405041
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23533396
