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Improving patient care through evidence-based practice

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, October 10, 2006

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) presents a serious threat and significant complication for patients on ventilator support. For staff members at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) in Bennington, these facts were of grave concern. Despite implementing practice changes in the ICU to reduce VAP, the center's rate of infection was consistently higher than the national benchmark of 5.3 infections per 1,000 ventilator days. Karen Coppin, MSN, RN, CCRN, intensive care patient services coordinator, decided to use EBP to address this problem.

Coppin identified an opportunity to educate RNs about the changes in ICU standard of care for ventilated patients during SVMC's annual competency validation day. The planning group set up a station-called Ventilator Management/Reducing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia-to educate nurses. The goal of the session was to get nurses to demonstrate knowledge of evidence-based strategies for ventilated patients and to describe evidence-based interventions shown to reduce VAP rates. Before visiting the station, nurses read articles and related literature, including a chart displaying SVMC's VAP rates in past quarters compared to the national average. When nurses visited the station, they received education about the rationale for prevention interventions and need for specific changes in the standard of care for ventilator patients.

SVMC's efforts to change the ICU care guidelines led to immediate results. In the first nine months after the implementation, there was not a single VAP at the center.

Source: Adapted from HCPro's new book, Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: A Guide to Successful Implementation. Click here for more information.

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