title: Changing Behavior among Nurses to Track Indwelling Urinary Catheters in Hospitalized Patients.
abstract: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are preventable complications of hospitalization. An interdisciplinary team developed a curriculum to increase awareness of the presence of indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) in hospitalized patients, addressed practical, primarily nurse-controlled inpatient risk-reduction interventions, and promoted the use of the IUC labels ("tags"). Five thirty-minute educational sessions were cycled over three daily nursing shifts on two inpatient medical floors over a 1-year period; participants were surveyed (n = 152) to elicit feedback and provide real-time insight on the learning objectives. Nurse self-reported IUC tagging was early and sustained; after the IUC tag was introduced, there was a significant increase in tagging reported by the end of the block of educational sessions (from 46.2% to 84.6%, P = 0.001). Early engagement combined with a targeted educational initiative led to increased knowledge, changes in behavior, and renewed CAUTI awareness in hospitalized patients with IUCs. The processes employed in this small-scale project can be applied to broader, hospitalwide initiatives and to large-scale initiatives for healthcare interventions. As first-line providers with responsibility for the placement and daily maintenance of IUCs, nurses are ideally positioned to implement efforts addressing CAUTIs in the hospital setting.
authors.affiliation: Medical Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 50 Irving Street, NW 4A155, Washington, DC 20422, USA.
authors.forename: Bona
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Samantha D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: McIntosh
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Alma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Holley
authors.forename: Charles J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Faselis
authors.forename: Angelike P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Liappis