Educational intervention in hospital can cut catheter use

(HealthDay)—A simple multimodal educational intervention targeting nurses and physicians can reduce mean catheter days per patient (CDPP) and the proportion of patients catheterized, according to a study published online Sept. 23 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Richard E. Norman, M.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of a multimodal nursing and physician education intervention to reduce the unnecessary use of urinary catheters in 21,550 adult inpatients (internal medicine and surgical services) from September 2009 to February 2013. The intervention included educational posters, small-group teaching sessions, and changes to the hospital's electronic health records and nursing clinical documentation systems.

The researchers found that there was a decrease in mean CDPP of 5.6 days on the medical unit and 6.5 days on the surgical unit after the intervention. The monthly incidence of catheterization was an average of 14.5 percent and 15 percent, respectively, on the medical and surgical units before the intervention and decreased by 3 and 6.4 percentage points on the two units immediately after the intervention. The effect was maintained over nearly three years of follow-up.

"A relatively simple multimodal educational intervention targeting nurses and physicians resulted in a significant and sustained reduction in CDPP and the proportion of participants catheterized," conclude the authors.