Reduction of catheter related bloodstream infections in intensive care: one for all, all for one?

摘要

To the Editor: Considering our particular interest in the field of nursing education and infection prevention and control, we would like to shortly respond on the paper of Helder and Latour recently published in the May issue of Nursing in Critical Care (Helder and Latour, 2009). First, the authors describe how the intravascular devices extensively used in the critical care setting negatively contribute in terms of clinical and economic outcome. Second, they discuss some actions to take in an aim to face these 'easy' to avoid problems. In our opinion, and as the authors mention, one of the most crucial strategies includes opportune education demonstrated by the poor knowledge levels found among critical care nurses on different aspects of infection control (Blot et ah, 2007; Labeau et ah, 2008; Vandijck et ah, 2008b; Labeau et ah, 2009). However, and contrary to as commonly perceived, educational initiatives should not only focus on professional nurses already working in nursing practice. More importantly, they should predominantly focus on undergraduate nurse students as we believe this provides a solid basis for their further bedside career.