Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: An Examination

Critically ill patients that require mechanical ventilation are at risk of developing secondary infections that may increase length of stay and possibly even morbidity. This fragile patient population requires special attention and meticulous adherence to established nursing standards of care. These standards of care are founded on evidenced based practices. It is important that nurses receive education about why these standards are in place and what consequences can result due to not following the established care protocols.

Critically ill patients who are intubated on mechanical ventilation for more than 24 hours of are at an increased risk of 6 to 21 times of developing ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). Patients intubated for lesser than 24 hours are at 3 times the risk of acquiring VAP.15

The prevention of VAP through standardized care can reduce mortality rates, reduce mechanical ventilation days, and decrease costs and improve patient outcome.

Nardi (2012) has found the following: Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is the second most common Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) in the United States and is responsible for 25% of the infections that occur in intensive care units (ICUs). VAP is associated with increases in death rates, lengths of stay, and healthcare costs. (p. 41) As frontline caregivers and advocates for their patients, nurses need to understand the basics of VAP, risk factors for this type of pneumonia, and strategies that may avoid the

According to Hunter (2012, p.40) “VAP is a hospital acquired pneumonia that occurs 48 hours or more after tracheal intubation or acute tracheostomisation”. VAP is one of the most common nosocomial infection responsible for one third of mortal respiratory infections in European ICUs (Adib-Hajbaghery et al. 2011).

To encourage physicians, ICU nurses, and respiratory therapist to use the ventilator associated pneumonia bundle in all ventilated patients in an intensive care unit.

Even though the consequence of saline instillation on a ventilator patient in the acute care setting is pneumonia or the patient may become hemodynamically unstable, this practice remain contentious, the practice of this procedure will also decrease the oxygenation. (Ayhan, et al., 2015),

Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a bacterial infection that occurs in the lower respiratory system within the first 48 hours of endotrachal intubation (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Bucher, & Camera, 2011). Although any hospital patient is susceptible to pneumonia, ventilator dependent patients are at the highest risk of acquiring pneumonia. The purpose of this paper is to identify the risk factors, incidences, and preventions of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) using a quantitative research study performed in Malaysia. “The aim of this

The authors of Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine state that “Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), a subset of HAP that occurs in mechanically ventilated patients more than 48 h after tracheal intubation” The type of ventilator that is needed to treat patients is called a mechanical ventilator. For these ventilators, a tube has to be inserted down the person’s throat thus causing more bacterial to get inside the patient’s body. Conclusion While most may think that hospitals are an environment for patients to return to their healthy state, hospitals can also be an environment where it deters them from healing. Hospital-acquired illnesses kill many each year and is due to reason of neglect or misuse of equipment.

J., Cormier, S., & Meyer, T. (2012). Reduction in the Incidence of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Respiratory Care, 57(5). 688-696. DOI: 10.4187/respcare.01392

What is the best evidence based nursing practice in attempting to reduce (VAP) ventilated associated pneumonia? I decided to do an evidence based paper on VAP after talking to respiratory therapy on the sixth floor of Chippenham hospital during my clinical studies. I have a friend who has spent many years as a RN in the critical care unit and has seen the effects of different methods in reducing VAP first hand. This is a nursing intervention and the sole responsibility of the nurse. I can’t think of a better topic to research considering I am in my first semester of nursing school. I am very excited to share what I have found. I have found a large amount of information on different methods to reduce VAP but have decided on three to

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of oral care on ventilator-associated pneumonia for inpatient

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a hospital-acquired condition that is currently not on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) list of non-payment hospital-acquired infections (CMS, 2015). However, the thought of adding VAP to the list occurred in past discussions by CMS (CMS, 2008). This may change when there is an improved definition with clearer inclusion criteria that is currently being constructed by the CDC (Klompas et al., 2014). Nonetheless, the goal is to prevent hospital-acquired illnesses like VAP. After performing a review of care interventions for the prevention of VAP, a collaborative team between the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, the Association for Professionals in

Ventilator-associated pneumonia compounds the risks that critically-ill patients face in hospitalization. It affects a high proportion of patients on ventilators and has a fluctuating morbidity rate. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the potential usefulness of chlorhexidine in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia in adults. The paper features a review of literature found via MedScape using the keywords “chlorhexidine,” “ventilator-associated pneumonia,” “long-term ventilation” and “prevention.” The results show that there is a positive correlation between using chlorhexidine in the oral care of patients using a ventilator; however, the evidence thus far does not present an opportunity to promote any clinical recommendations.

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia in a patient who is intubated and ventilated at the time of the onset of the event or 48 hours before, and VAP rate as the number of ventilator-associated pneumonias per 1,000 ventilator days (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2014a). The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) gives the following example of how to calculate the number of VAP’s in a month: “if 25 patients were ventilated during the month and, for purposes of example, each was on mechanical ventilation for 3 days, the number of ventilator days would be 25 x 3 = 75