Maintaining Short Peripheral Catheter Patency: A Comparison of Saline Lock Versus Continuous Infusion in the Acute Care Setting.

Sparse evidence exists about how short peripheral catheter (SPC) duration is affected by the presence of a saline lock versus continually infusing fluids. Often the choice to lock an SPC with saline is based on provider preference, rather than available evidence or patient-centered factors. This study compared the duration of 85 SPCs: locked with saline versus continuously running fluids.

A Measure of Lean Quality Improvement for Hospital Staff Nurses.

In this study, a measure of Lean management was developed and tested. Items were identified using the Delphi technique with literature review and expert responses. Twenty-five nurses pilot-tested the instrument and then 212 nurses in 5 hospitals completed the instrument, and their responses were subjected to exploratory factor analysis.

Beyond best practice: Implementing a unit-based CLABSI project.

This article describes a hospital unit's successful central line-associated bloodstream infection reduction project. The focus is on decreasing and sustaining a low rate of infection by targeting improvement in central line maintenance. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research's 5 interacting domains (the intervention, inner and outer settings, individuals involved, and process) were used to guide the selection of 4 Plan-Do-Study-Act interventions.

A comparison of patient pain responses and medication regimens after hip/knee replacement.

Background: Increased emphasis on adequate pain control as a patient expectation and a change in professional practice standards has prompted research on new mechanisms of pain medication delivery in an effort to improve outcomes and efficacy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare pain scores of patients receiving extended release epidural morphine (EREM) with those receiving traditional pain control regimens.

Design/methods: Retrospective chart reviews were performed on all patients who had had first-time, elective, nontraumatic, unilateral hip or knee replacement from January to June 2006.