PiccPed® app impact on nurses' knowledge to prevent adverse events for peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) in pediatric and neonatal healthcare: A quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: The PiccPed® health application was developed to support clinical decision-making in peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) management. We aimed to evaluate its impact on nurses' knowledge regarding the prevention of PICC-associated adverse events in pediatrics and neonatology. METHODS: A quasi-experimental, pre-post intervention study, was conducted with a dependent/paired sample of pediatric and neonatal nurses from two tertiary hospitals in South Brazil. Data were collected from October 2022 to January 2023 across three phases: pre-, intervention (use of the PiccPed®) and post-test. Study outcomes were a knowledge test (15 questions) of evidence-based PICC maintenance procedures, and PiccPed® app time spent and screens used. RESULTS: A total of 56 nurses completed the study. The post-test mean score was significantly higher (12/15; standard deviation (SD) 1.9) in comparison with the pre-test (mean 9/15; SD 2.2). The change in scores was significantly higher for nurses without postgraduate qualifications, in comparison to those with (Mean Difference 1.26; p = 0.039). Each minute using the app resulted in a significant increase of 0.04 points (95% confidence interval 0.01-0.08; p = 0.014) on the mean post-test score (10.94 points). CONCLUSION: The research demonstrated that PiccPed® enhances nurses' learning regarding the prevention of adverse events associated with PICC maintenance in pediatrics and neonatology. APPLICATION TO PRACTICE: The app can be safely and effectively used for training and continuing education of nurses who care for children and neonates with PICCs.

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.