Impact of Implementation Nursing Guidelines on Minimizing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia among Intensive Care Patients

Abstract

Responsibilities of nurses for minimizing rate of mechanical ventilation pneumonia may differ among countries as it is a serious complication of mechanical ventilation, which increases patients stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and overall length of hospital stay ,this study aims to identify impact of  nursing guideline on minimizing  ventilator- associated pneumonia among patients . A quasi - experimental design were used in this study, the study setting was will Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Units in King Fahd Hospital (Saudi Arbia).  The subject of this study composed of two groups ,the first group composed of all patients admitted to ICU and received mechanical ventilation during the study period as well as free from any signs of pneumonia were enrolled into the study while the second group composed of nurses whom provide direct nursing care to the patients and their numbers were nurses.Three tools the first one was patients sheet to collect necessary data, including age; gender; reason for initiating mechanical ventilation and admitting diagnosis, tool two was observation checklist which  developed to evaluates  nurse's practice provided to patients, and tool three  was guidelines protocol adopted from Centers for Disease Control and applying in four sessions for  minimizing of ventilator-associated pneumonia. The conclusion of the study were decreasing rate of duration of mechanical ventilation in hours, and  length stay of the patients in ICU in hours in post  nursing guidelines  compared to  pre  nursing guidelines, as well as Minimizing rate of ventilator associated pneumonia.

Keywords: -  Nursing Guideline - ventilator associated pneumonia – patients- intensive care unit.