Factors associated with the disinfection of devices attached to peripheral intravenous catheters performed by the nursing team in pediatric units

Background

Peripheral intravenous catheterization, as well as drug administration through it, represents one of the most performed procedures by the Nursing team and, for that, precautions need to be adopted to offer harm-free care.

Objective

To verify the association of Nursing professionals' work shift and training time with proper disinfection of intravenous catheter devices in pediatric units.

Methods

A cross-sectional and analytical study conducted between June and August 2021 in three hospitalization units of a Pediatric Hospital. The inclusion criterion was drug administration via peripheral intravenous catheters performed by Nursing professionals. The data were analyzed according to inferential statistics, adopting p ≤ .05 as significance level.

Results

There were a total of 385 observations of drug administration procedures. The device was not disinfected in 60.3% of the cases, there was no friction at the suitable time in 86.3%, and the disinfectant was not allowed to dry in 72.5%. The work shift exerted no influence on performance of the disinfection procedure (p = .376). However, longer training time was associated with a lower rate in performing such procedure (p < .001).

Conclusion

Performing friction below the recommended time can cause a false sense of prevention of catheter-associated bloodstream infection; therefore, training sessions and strategies for adherence to the disinfection procedures should be considered, mainly for professionals with more training time.