Preventing CAUTIs in Hospitalized Patients

Preventing CAUTIS in Hospitalized Patients
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Introduction
Indwelling urinary catheters (ICUs) are some of the most used tools in healthcare, with statistics indicating that about 20% of patients admitted in American hospitals receive an indwelling urinary catheter, and of the 20% admitted, about 1% develop catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) (Mitchell et al., 2017). On the other hand, CAUTIs are a serious occurrence that contributes significantly to increased stay in the hospital, high morbidity, and high mortality. Prevention and control measures have been on the rise in the past few decades, but CAUTIS remains a common and problematic occurrence among patients. There are several initiatives proposed to help prevent CAUTIS among hospitalized patients including promoting the adoption of appropriate catheter insertion techniques, preventing inappropriate short-term catheter use, and enhancing nurse-driven timely removal of urinary catheters (Lee Knill, Maduro, & Payne, 2018) Evidence about the best solution for preventing CAUTIS is still mixed and this paper explores evidence-based literature to determine some of the most effective methods of reducing CAUTIS.
Literature synthesis: CAUTIS
CAUTI bundle remains one of the most effective interventions in preventing CAUTIS among hospitalized patients. The application of the CAUTI bundle in different acute care hospitals and rehabilitation centers proves that the strategy has helped decrease CAUTIS significantly (Zurmehyly, 2017). CAUTIS bundle further emphasizes documentation, continuous surveillance for the need of catheters, competency checks on every catheter insertion, and timely removal of catheters (Teha et al., 2017; Zurmehyly, 2017).
Taha et al. (2017) noted in their research that the implementation of the CAUTIS bundle decreased the use of a catheter. They also concluded that the early removal of catheters among patients reduced CAUTIS by a significant rate. Meddings et al. (2017) concurred by arguing that the implementation of the CAUTIS bundle increased nurse awareness on patients with IUCS prompting them to assess whether or not the IUC was needed.
According to Zurmehly (2018), CAUTIS remains the second most healthcare-associated infection. He noted however that after an educational intervention among registered nurses (RN), the overall urinary catheter-days decreased by about 10.1% whereas the CAUTI cases dropped by 74% (4.82 CAUTI per 1,000 patient-days to 1.24). In his conclusion, the educational intervention significantly contributed to a decrease in CAUTIS among patients. The problem with this study was its low sample space which significantly impacted infection rate and made statistical outcome unlikely to determine (Zurmehly, 2018).
Sultan et al., (2018) in their research ...