Comparative study of patient comfort and nursing workload in different PICC catheter sites

Abstract

Objective To explore the differences of patient comfort and nursing workload between ultrasound guidance on upper arm placement of PICC and traditional placement of PICC, and to provide a reference for correct selection of catheter way. Methods Using a nonrandomized controlled study, a total of 1 116 patients were divided into the control group and the observation group, patients with traditional placement of PICC were set as the control group, and the patients with upper arm placement of PICC were named as the observation group. The patient comfort and workload of use and maintenance of PICC by nurses were compared between two groups. Results The incidence of catheter sliding out of PICC in the observation group was 1.9%(7/365), obviously higher than that of the control group, which was 0.3%(2/751), the difference was significant (χ2=8.37, P=0.007). The patient comfort had no statistical significance between two groups (t=2.13, P=0.082). The workload of use and maintenance of PICC in the observation group were (1.87±0.31) min and (9.16±1.07) min ,which were obviously higher than that of the control group [(0.85±0.16) min and(7.22±2.13) min] in winter (t=4.39, P=0.022; t=3.44, P=0.041), but there was no statistical significance between two groups in summer (P > 0.05). Conclusions The workload of use and maintenance of PICC on upper arm placement was higher than traditional placement of PICC in winter, but the obvious differences of patient comfort and nursing workload in summer between the two PICC groups were not been found. Key words: Catheterization, peripheral; Ultrasonography; Comfort; Workload