I love the idea of a catheter insertion team! I think this is a great way to not only empower staff to attain specialized education (as you mentioned) but also an opportunity for leadership. The members of the team will be in a position to provide education and act as a unit resource with regard to CAUTI prevention. And it just makes sense that, as you mentioned, their specialization and dedication will help to decrease CAUTI rates.
One of the measures my former hospital took to decrease CAUTI rates was to develop a nurse-driven catheter discontinuation policy. As we charted on each patient, a box would pop up if the nurse marked the patient as having a catheter. That box would ask specific questions about why the catheter was in place. If certain criteria was not met, an order was automatically entered to d/c the catheter. This decreased CAUTIs drastically since it took the d/c order out of the physician’s hands (who often were either unaware a foley was even in place or just simply overlooked foley orders) and placed it with the nurses. There was some initial concern that physicians would not agree with nurse-driven protocol but the idea was actually welcome on everyone’s part. The doctors expressed great satisfaction that the nurses were able to independently d/c foley catheters if criteria allowed them to. The nurses were relieved that they no longer had to wait on d/c orders, and the patients benefited with less infection risk and greater comfort. It truly was a win-win!
Great job on your presentation and good luck with your project!!
Thank you for sharing! The idea for a nurse-driven catheter discontinuation policy is a great idea. I could see that initially it might be something physicians may not like but overall I think that policy would go over well in my facility. I think that satisfaction for nurses, providers, and patients will all increase as well as a decreased infection rate.
Kynzie,
I love the idea of a catheter insertion team! I think this is a great way to not only empower staff to attain specialized education (as you mentioned) but also an opportunity for leadership. The members of the team will be in a position to provide education and act as a unit resource with regard to CAUTI prevention. And it just makes sense that, as you mentioned, their specialization and dedication will help to decrease CAUTI rates.
One of the measures my former hospital took to decrease CAUTI rates was to develop a nurse-driven catheter discontinuation policy. As we charted on each patient, a box would pop up if the nurse marked the patient as having a catheter. That box would ask specific questions about why the catheter was in place. If certain criteria was not met, an order was automatically entered to d/c the catheter. This decreased CAUTIs drastically since it took the d/c order out of the physician’s hands (who often were either unaware a foley was even in place or just simply overlooked foley orders) and placed it with the nurses. There was some initial concern that physicians would not agree with nurse-driven protocol but the idea was actually welcome on everyone’s part. The doctors expressed great satisfaction that the nurses were able to independently d/c foley catheters if criteria allowed them to. The nurses were relieved that they no longer had to wait on d/c orders, and the patients benefited with less infection risk and greater comfort. It truly was a win-win!
Great job on your presentation and good luck with your project!!
Thank you for sharing! The idea for a nurse-driven catheter discontinuation policy is a great idea. I could see that initially it might be something physicians may not like but overall I think that policy would go over well in my facility. I think that satisfaction for nurses, providers, and patients will all increase as well as a decreased infection rate.