Date of Conferral

12-18-2024

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Anna Hubbard

Abstract

This Doctor of Nursing (DN) project aimed to educate staff on set protocols for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in a medical-surgical unit. The CAUTI rates in the unit were rising beyond the national standards. The purpose of this project was to effectively reduce the CAUTI rates by at least 25% by providing knowledge in the form of best practices to the nursing staff about catheter insertion, care, and removal. The practice-focused question attempted to answer whether staff education on CAUTI protocols would increase knowledge. Thirty-seven staff members voluntarily participated in the education project, including nursing staff, infection control personnel, and unit managers. The analytical approaches were baseline and post-survey data collection, catheter days, and CAUTI rate calculation. The initial assessments found that only 45 percent of the nursing staff scored the education competency level of 70 percent and above. There were significant improvements in the post-education intervention test, with 85% of all the staff scoring more than 90%. The project demonstrated a reduction in CAUTI rates by the targeted 25%, proving the effectiveness of education in staff compliance with the protocol. The next course of action is staff training, sensitization on the effects of soil exposure, conducting periodic audits, and extending these standardized procedures to other units. Also, the intervention can help to make positive changes in nursing education by providing optimum, safe care to multispecialty patient groups and ensuring that infection prevention work plans are efficient for all the populations. Maintaining consistency in the implementation approach of this project and continuing the teamwork on improving the quality of care in healthcare organizations will promote equity. Staff Education Project Development A preliminary risk analysis of the Reducing CAUTI in the Medical-Surgical Unit project revealed that the planning process should include specific planning and step-bystep operations to enhance the probability of success. The project was established primarily as a staff education project to improve nursing staff's knowledge. Several vital activities were carried out in this phase, such as participant recruitment, development and pre-testing of educational resources and instruments, development of assessment tools, and monitoring of the effectiveness of the intervention.

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