Urinary catheter alleviation navigator protocol (UCANP): Overview of protocol and review of initial experience

Urinary catheter alleviation navigator protocol (UCANP): Update to the hospital-wide implementation at a single tertiary health care center

BACKGROUND

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are commonly reported health care-associated infections. It was demonstrated that the urinary catheter alleviation navigator protocol (UCANP) pilot resulted in a reduction of catheter utilization and catheter days.

METHODS

Quality improvement initiative that was implemented at a single urban, tertiary health care center, focusing on early discontinuation of indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) and avoidance of reinsertion. The protocol was expanded hospital-wide from September 2020 to April 2022. We compared IUC utilization, IUC standardized utilization ratio (SUR), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection standardized infection ratio in the preintervention period (March 2020 to August 2020) to the postintervention period (May 2022 to October 2022).

RESULTS

Preimplementation, 2 patients with IUC removal were placed on UCANP. Postimplementation, 835 (45%) patients with IUC removal participated in the protocol. The number of patients requiring IUC reinsertion did not differ among the 2 groups. IUC utilization was significantly decreased from 0.28 to 0.24 with a 14% reduction (P = .025). SUR decreased by 11% from 0.778 to 0.693 (P = .007) and standardized infection ratio by 84% from 0.311 to 0.049 (P = .009).

CONCLUSIONS

Our protocol significantly reduced IUC utilization and SUR after hospital-wide implementation. UCANP is a safe and effective strategy that can potentially decrease unnecessary IUCs in patients with transient urinary retention.

Knowledge, Practice and Associated Factors of Health Care Workers on Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in South Wollo Zone Public Hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia

Introduction

Health care providers are responsible for inserting and maintaining urinary catheters. Hence, it is very important that health care professionals need to be skillful and knowledgeable to prevent urinary tract infection for those patients undergoing indwelling catheter. Thus, this study aimed to assess knowledge, practice and associated factors of health care workers on prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections in South Wollo zone public hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia.

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed by using a simple random sampling technique among 413 health care workers. Data were entered into Epi-Data version 4.6 and were exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Bivariable logistic regression analyses were performed, and variables with P-value less than 0.25 were fitted to multivariable logistic regression. In multivariable regression analysis, variables having p-value <0.05 were declared as significant factors for outcome variable.

Results

Out of the total 413 health care workers, 298 (72.2%) had adequate knowledge and 233 (56.4%) had adequate level of practice towards catheter-associated urinary tract infection prevention. Received training [AOR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.404–3.889] and being bachelor degree holder [AOR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.084–3.359] were significantly associated with adequate knowledge. On the other hand, being master and doctor [AOR = 4.71, 95% CI: 1.768–12.56], adequate level of knowledge [AOR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.785–4.723], received training [AOR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.315–3.338] and work experience ≥20 years [AOR = 5.82, 95% CI: 1.497–22.69] were significantly associated with adequate level of practice.

Conclusion

A substantial proportion of health care workers had inadequate knowledge and practice towards catheter-associated urinary tract infection prevention. Therefore, health care workers should strictly follow infection prevention guidelines and should update their knowledge and practice by taking short and long term training.