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Urinary Catheter-Associated Infection

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Catheters are associated with urinary tract infections which are the most common healthcare-associated infections, which account for 30–40% of infections in the healthcare setting each year. (Nazarko et al, 2008) CAUTI results in a patient having to stay in a hospital or nursing home like setting for a long period of time, which can also result in increase of hospital costs (Plowman et al, 1999). Catheters can either be long term or short term, and there are many different types of catheters such as: Foley, straight, coude tip. How CAUTIs occur is when bacteria is in the bladder and a few ways this occurs is when the catheter is first inserted, by ascending the catheter tubing from the drainage tubing and bag, and when the drainage bag is not emptied properly (Nazarko et al, 2008). …show more content…

Catheters may be inserted when a patient is having a specific type of surgery, such as repair of hip fracture (Johansson et al, 2002). The EPIC Project guidelines, recommend four interventions related to reducing urinary catheter-associated infection (Pratt et al, 2001): Assessing the need for catheterization, selecting the catheter type, Aseptic catheter insertion, Catheter maintenance. Tsuchida and colleagues (2008) found that the use of a ‘pre-connected closed system’ and ‘daily cleansing of the perineal area’ could reduce the incidence of CAUTIs by nearly 50%. Also following guidelines is essential for preventing urinary tract infections some guidelines are; Perform hand hygiene before and after all handling of the catheter, tubing, and drainage bag. Empty the drainage bag when it becomes full or at least once every 8 hours to prevent migration of bacteria. Lastly, keep the drainage bag lower than the level of the patient’s bladder to prevent backflow of urine in the bladder; verify that the bag does not rest on the floor (Caple,

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