course material

1. [From 10$/Pg] Aim Toward Zero Catheters
[From 10$/Pg] Aim Toward Zero CathetersThe American Nurses Association (ANA)
identified nursing informatics as “a specialty that integrates nursing, science, computer
science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, and
knowledge in nursing practice” (ANA, 2001, Pg.17). The rapid innovation in data collection
is crucial for optimal patient care and quality improvement among states. Good data
collection allows the hospital to improve its direct care to the patient, improve staff training,
and foster improvement in clinical intervention. A chronicle impact of scientific clinical data
collections is the correlation that exists between hospital acquired infection caused by foley
insertion among patients. I work in the intensive care unit where the use of foley catheters
is almost considered the gold standard for patient care before the introduction of pure wick
and condom catheters. Most patients admitted in the ICU had foley catheter inserted for
hemodynamic monitoring. A habit that persisted before the introduction of pure wick or
condom catheters. This culture often sometimes caused hospital-acquired urinary tract
infection among patients in the ICU. To change this culture, our hospital put in place an
aggressive policy change where patients must meet certain criteria before staff nurses can
insert foley and daily foley care. In rare conditions, patients’ Foley has a three-day physician
order after which there must be rationale from the clinical team to continue the use of
Foley. Our ICU nurses then compares the data collected from the Foley use versus the
condom/pure wick use. The accurate data collection was documented using the hospital
flowsheet.Our hospital was able to reduce hospital acquired UTI caused by foley infection
by 85% and aim toward zero catheters acquired infection annually. This accurate data
collection and evidence-based practice helps change an old culture, help improve patient
quality of care, limit unnecessary readmission, and improve staff training. Without this well-
documented data, our hospital might have been stuck in its old ways. An old way that
continues to increase the cost of healthcare, caused decline in patient care, and undue
prolongation in patients’ hospitalization.Also vital is the staff teaching which helps improve
patients’ satisfaction. All nurses, regardless of their arena, must use informatics and
technology to inform and support that practice (McGonigle, & Mastrian.2022). Our staff
embraced this evidence-based practice, and a new culture was established. Moreso it would
have been impossible to implement this new policy without accurate data to justify the
clinical outcome. These data allow the hospital to own the foley inserted in each patient and
nurses can track more accurately if the patient acquire the infection during their
hospitalization. This clinical practice drastically reduced infection among our patients and

2. improve our patient careIn retrospect, a nurse leader can use this clinical reasoning and
judgment in the formation of knowledge by recognizing a particular problem that may
hinder patient care and help form policies to correct certain lack of evidence-based practice
among staff. The nurse leader can use accurate data collection to reform old policies within
an organization. for example, a nurse leader can compare the outcome of patients with
foley insertion versus patients on condom/pure wick catheter and based outcome on
individual patient intervention.In conclusion, without accurate data, it is impossible to
change any bad policies or improve on any policies within an organization. lack of data may
hinder innovation and new ideas within the organization. Therefore, data collection is a
vital tool for patient care, staff improvement, and improvement in patient
satisfaction. ReferencesSweeney, J. (2017). Healthcare Informatics. Online Journal of
Nursing Informatics, 21(1), 4–1.McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2022). Nursing informatics
and the foundation of knowledge (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.Chapter 1, “Nursing
Science and the Foundation of Knowledge” (pp. 7–17)