Improve nurse work environment to reduce infection occurance
Critical care patients have higher HAI rates
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are less likely to occur in favorable critical care work environments, according to a study in the November issue of American Journal of Critical Care.
The study found nurses who characterize the critical care work environment as favorable were about 40% less likely to report that HAIs, including urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonias, and central line associated blood stream infections, occurred frequently-more than once a month-compared to nurses working in poor critical care work environments.
“HAIs lead to the loss of tens of thousands of lives and cost the US healthcare system billions of dollars each year,” says lead author Deena Kelly, RN, PhD, from the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia. “In addition, HAIs can have devastating emotional, financial and medical consequences for patients.”
The study examined the association between the critical care work environment and nurse-reported frequency of HAIs in four states during 2005 to 2008. The final sample totaled 3,217 ICU nurses from 320 hospitals, making it one of the largest samples of critical care nurses to date.
“These findings substantiate efforts to focus on the quality of the work environment as a way to minimize the frequency of HAIs,” Kelly says. “Critical care nurses, as the largest group of clinicians providing direct care in intensive care units, are well positioned to influence the prevalence and prevention of HAIs in critically ill patients.”
Critically ill patients are particularly susceptible to healthcare-associated infections, and the nurses’ work environment may be a key organizational strategy for hospitals to examine, according to Kelly.
Administrators and nurses should focus their efforts on addressing weaknesses in their critical care work environments by using scores from of the 31-item Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) as a guide, she says.
“Implementing a primary care staffing model, ensuring appropriate support staff and resources are available and providing support for nurse managers are examples of interventions that might lower risk for development of HAIs,” Kelly says.
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