Improving Registered Nurses' Knowledge of Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines to Decrease the Incidence of Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections: An Educational Intervention

Abstract

BackgroundThe 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for preventing central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI). Educating and training health care personnel—incorporating bundled strategies for maximizing patient safety throughout the course of intravenous therapy—is the major area of interest. Despite a low number of reported CLABSIs—below national benchmarks—our large regional medical center has the goal of 0 CLABSI. PurposeThe purpose of our project was to develop an educational intervention guided by the Healthcare and Technology Synergy Framework to improve registered nurses' (RNs) knowledge of evidence-based practice guidelines to decrease the incidence of CLABSI. MethodologyA pretest/posttest format was used to evaluate an educational session on the nursing management of central lines (CLs). Participants in the study were RNs employed at a large regional medical center who worked 50% or more per week providing direct patient care in the hospital's intensive care units. An educational session on nursing management of CLs was presented. A 16-question survey (7 demographic and 9 knowledge questions) to assess RNs' knowledge of care and maintenance of CLs was used as the pretest and posttest. ConclusionsRNs' knowledge of care and maintenance of CLs improved significantly after the intervention (pretest mean score = 4.6 and posttest mean score = 8.4; P = .0001). Implications for PracticeAn educational intervention can increase RNs' knowledge of care of CLs. As a result of this project, an annual evidence-based practice educational intervention was adopted for RNs at our large regional medical center.