Video-based training increases sterile-technique compliance during central venous catheter insertion.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of an online training course containing video clips of central venous catheter insertions on compliance with sterile practice.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled study.

Setting: Admitting area of a university-based high-volume trauma center.

Subjects: Surgical and emergency medicine residents rotating through the trauma services.

Interventions: An online training course on recommended sterile practices during central venous catheter insertion was developed. The course contained short video clips from actual patient care demonstrating common noncompliant behaviors and breaks regarding recommended sterile practices. A 4-month study with a counterbalanced design compared residents trained by the video-based online training course (video group) with those trained with a paper version of the course (paper group). Residents who inserted central venous catheters but received neither the paper nor video training were used as a control group. Consecutive central venous catheter insertions from 12 noon to 12 midnight except Sundays were video recorded.

Measurements And Main Results: Sterile-practice compliance was judged through video review by two surgeons blinded to the training status of the residents. Fifty residents inserted 73 elective central venous catheters (19, 31, and 23 by the video, paper, and control group operators, respectively) into 68 patients. Overall compliance with proper operator preparation, skin preparation, and draping was 49% (36 of 73 procedures). The training had no effect on selection of site and skin preparation agent. The video group was significantly more likely than the other two groups to fully comply with sterile practices (74% vs. 33%; odds ratio, 6.1; 95% confidence interval, 2.0-22.0). Even after we controlled for the number of years in residency training, specialty, number of central venous catheters inserted, and central venous catheter site chosen, the video group was more likely to comply with recommended sterile practices (p = .003).

Conclusions: An online training course, with short video clips of actual patient care demonstrating noncompliant behaviors, improved sterile-practice compliance for central venous catheter insertion. Paper handouts with equivalent content did not improve compliance.