A comparison of nurses’ knowledge of nursing care for central vascular catheters

The aim of the research was to compare the knowledge of nursing care for central vascular catheters (which hereinafter will be referred to as CVC) among general nurses from intensive care units and standard departments. In general, we can say that the aim was also to map the extent of nurses’ knowledge on infections associated with providing care in healthcare-associated infections (which hereinafter will be referred to as HAI), and aseptic care for central vascular catheters, including catheter sepsis. Part of the research was a content analysis and a comparison of standards of nursing care in three medical facilities concerning the issue of central vascular catheters (with an emphasis on HAI).The quantitative research was conducted in four medical facilities: Regional Hospital Liberec, Masaryk Municipal Hospital in Jilemnice, Hospital České Budějovice, and Hospital Semily. The chosen research method was a standard questionnaire, which used different kinds of questions and assessment scales. The respondents were selected by purposive sampling. The statistical processing was drawn from 290 completed questionnaires. The statistical methods used were the χ2 test and the two-sided Student's t-test.The research identified various and serious information deficits in nurses (both in intensive care units and standard units). One example might be underestimating the issue of HAI; the majority of respondents perceived the term HAI as an abbreviation for infections arising only in connection with the hospitalization of patients. Staff who are unaware of the risk of HAI in connection with outpatient or basic nursing care in social institutions will hardly be able to apply preventive procedures. Several serious deficiencies were detected in the knowledge of nurses regarding the aseptic approach to nursing care for central vascular catheters, such as a poor description of the procedure of disinfecting the injection site, non-complex tools for dressing the CVC and a very problematic thinning of heparin plugs.