Date

Summer 2023

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Department

College of Nursing

First Advisor

Shelli Gibbs

Abstract

Problem Statement: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) among critical care patients negatively impact the trajectory of the patient’s hospitalization through increased mortality, morbidity, length of stay, and cost. To combat this, hospitals have implemented bundles in compliance with evidence-based practice models to reduce CAUTIs. Purpose: Determine if implementing a daily multidisciplinary rounding audit of established CAUTI prevention protocol decreases the occurrence of CAUTIs in critical care patients with indwelling urinary catheters. Methods: Participants in this quality improvement project included critical care nurses and providers participating in daily multidisciplinary rounds on all critical care patients with indwelling urinary catheters admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) during a three-month timeframe. Staff compliance was ensured through the completion of daily audits and electronic health record documentation. Rates of urinary catheter use and incidence of CAUTIs were evaluated monthly following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria throughout the study period. Results: Before implementation of the strategy, six catheter-associated urinary catheter tract infections were reported for 2021 and five for 2022. Established best practice protocols, supported by daily multidisciplinary rounding audits decreased CAUTIs to zero not only during the project implementation but also following, up to the current date. Conclusion: Daily multidisciplinary rounding audits on ICU patients with urinary catheters resulted in a decrease in standard utilization ratios as well as zero catheter-associated urinary tract infections with a standardized infection ratio of 0.00. These findings support the feasibility of incorporating daily audits, of established best practice protocols, in the ICU.

Rights

© 2023, Jacqueline April Wright

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