Selected Quality Indicator
The selected quality indicator for focus in the presentation is urinary catheter associated urinary tract infections (UTIs). According to evidence, catheter-associated urinary tract infections are among the most common hospital acquired infections in America. The evidence provided by Podkovik et al., (2019), the estimated number of cases of catheter-associated urinary tract infections in the US hospitals in 2011 was two cases in every 1000 hospital indwelling catheter days. Patients who develop catheter-associated urinary tract infections present with symptoms that include fever, costovertebral angle tenderness, suprapubic tenderness, dysuria, urinary frequency, and presence of bacteria or white blood cells on urine culture (Kuy et al., 2020). Patients with indwelling urinary catheter are highly predisposed to urinary tract infections due to a number of factors. One of the factors is the prolonged use of indwelling urinary catheter that predisposes the urinary tract to colonization by bacteria. Improper use of aseptic techniques or preparation for insertion also increases the risk for the development of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (Letica-Kriegel et al., 2019; Omer et al., 2020). The additional risk factors for catheter-associated urinary tract infections include female gender, poor nutrition, severe illness, fecal incontinence, and immunosuppression (Anggi et al., 2019).
Cather-associated urinary tract infections are included in the nursing sensitive quality indicators because they are preventable. Accordingly, appropriate interventions can be adopted in health institutions to prevent them. Examples of interventions that can be embraced in nursing to reduce the infections include appropriate insertion of the urinary catheter, reducing the colonization of bacteria around the urethral area of meatus using antiseptic cleaning solutions, and instituting institutional guidelines and policies that relate to insertion of urinary catheter (Mitchell et al., 2017). Consequently, it is important that new nursing staffs be educated on the factors that contribute to catheter-associated urinary tract infections and ways of minimizing them in practice.
Importance of Monitoring the Indicator
Monitoring catheter-associated urinary tract infections in nursing is important because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infection in an organization indicate the quality and safety of care given to the patients. A high rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections in an institution implies that the nurses do not possess knowledge and skills that are needed to promote safety in patient care. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are also monitored due to the adverse health effects that they have. According to evidence, catheter-associated urinary tract infections cause complications that include endocarditis and sepsis. This type of infection is also reported to contribute to more than 13000 deaths every year across the world (Podkovik et al., 2019). Patients affected with catheter-associated urinary tract infections also stay in hospital longer than those who do not develop the infection. The extended hospital stay is attributed to the additional treatment that patients should receive to prevent complications. Extended hospital stay implies that the cost that the patients incur due to catheter-associated urinary tract infections is high (Kuy et al., 2020).
According to the study by Hollenbeak and Schilling (2018), catheter-associated urinary tract infection costs patients and health organizations $876 for additional medications and diagnostic tests. The authors also show that Medicare cost for inpatient costs for non-intensive care unit is $1764 and $8398 inpatient cost for pediatric patients and $10197 for ICU patients (Hollenbeak & Schilling, 2018). According to Mitchell et al., (2017), 380000 bed days are lost on an annual basis in Australia due to catheter-associated urinary tract infections and extended hospital stay. Therefore, considering the above impacts, nurses should be educated on the best practices that are effective in preventing and reducing the rates of catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
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Why Nurses need to be Aware of the Quality Indicator
New nurses need to be familiar with catheter-associated urinary tract infection as a quality indicator because they play a critical role in preventing its occurrence. Insertion of urinary catheter is the primary role of nurses in hospital settings. This implies that they play a critical role in the ad
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