Registered Nursesu27 Practices and Perceptions of Indwelling Urinary Catheters and Number of Indwelling Urinary Catheter Days in a Hospitalized Population

摘要

Prevention of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) is an important component of the delivery of safe quality care. A common theme is emerging from the literature: not all indwelling urinary catheters are appropriate for the duration of the catheterization, which places the patient at an increased risk of CAUTI (Blodgett, 2009). Often, the reasoning used for determining if a patient needs a catheter is not evidence-based. The placement and maintenance of indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) are in the scope of practice for registered nurses. Nurses should play an integral role in developing strategies to limit the use of catheters thereby reducing the incidence of CAUTIs. The purpose of the pilot study is to describe registered nursesu27 practice and perceptions of IUCs and the actual number of days patients have IUCs. A convenience sample of fifty registered nursesu27 perceptions of urinary catheters was measured with an instrument developed for use in this study. The Likert scale was used for the instrument design (Burns u26 Grove, 2005). The instrument addressed both agreement and frequency, and was measured using a five-point scale. Patient catheter days data was collected monthly from every unit from the hospital Device Day Data Form . The participants were registered nurses working on the medical, surgical, and intensive care units of a 143 bed acute care hospital. The results substantiate that indwelling urinary catheters are often an acceptable convenience for the nursing staff, and that the number of catheter days experienced by the patient is not viewed as an important driver in the care planning process. In order to decrease the number of catheter days, the norms, attitudes, and intentions of the nursing staff will have to be changed through education and revision of organizational policy and procedure.