In Our Intensive Care Unit the Experience of the Checklist Use to Prevent Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Objective: Intensive care units\udare high risk units for serious infections like\udventilator associated pneumonia. Preventing\udventilator associated pneumonia is one of\udthe most important infection control practice\udin intensive care units. In this study, it was\udaimed to investigate the effect of the ventilator\udassociated pneumonia prevention checklist use\udin decreasing ventilator associated pneumonia\udrates.\udMaterial and Method: This study was\udperformed in the intensive care units at\udYenimahalle Training and Research Hospital\udbetween January 2013 and September 2013. In\udthe first 3 months, the routine infection control\udmeasurements were used. At the end of this\udterm a lecture about using the checklist was\udgiven to the nurses. At the second 3 months\udperiod, the checklist was filled by each patient’s\udnurse. At the last 3 months period there was\udno checklist use. The ventilator associated\udpneumonia rates were registered in all these\udterms. After and before the intervention term\udtests about ventilator associated pneumonia\udprevention with 20 questions were given to the\udnurses.\udResults: Between January to March 2013,\udat the first 3 months, ventilator associated\udpneumonia rate was 38.2%; at the second\udterm, it was 7.4%; at the third term, it was\ud3.8%. At the front test, the nurses got 84.5\udpoint success rate and at the last test, the\udrate was 92.6. The success rate differences\udbetween these two tests were statistically\udsignificant with the Wilcoxon test (z-3.4,\udp=0.001).\udConclusion: At the end of this study, despite\udany changes in the other routine and patient\udpopulation, it was seen that there were\udobvious decrease in the ventilator associated\udpneumonia rates during the intervention term\udand the term after the intervention. Also the\udchecklist use increased the nurses’ knowledge\udlevel about the ventilator associated pneumonia\udprevention and hand hygiene adherence rate