Using evidence-based practice to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Abstract

In November 2009, AJN launched a 12-part series, Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step, authored by nursing leaders from the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation's Center for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice. Through hypothetical scenarios, based on the authors' collective clinical experience, the series illustrated the seven steps of evidence-based practice (EBP), defined as "a problem-solving approach to the delivery of health care that integrates the best evidence from studies and patient care data with clinician expertise and patient preferences and values." This article reports on an EBP project in which the seven-step approach to EBP described in the AJN series was used to reduce the incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infection among adult patients in a long-term acute care hospital by reducing the duration of catheterization.