Assessment of Practice of Critical Care Nurses on Open Method Endotracheal Suctioning in a Referral Hospital

Abstract

Introduction Endotracheal suction (ETS) is a procedure which aims to keep airways patent by mechanically removing accumulated pulmonary secretions, especially in patients with artificial airways (Favretto et al., 2012, p.998). Title: The assessment of practice of critical care nurses on open method endotracheal suctioning in a referral hospital is non-experimental observation quantitative study conducted in Intensive Care (ICU) and High Dependency (HDU) Units of the University Hospital Centre of Kigali (CHUK). Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of nursing practice in a referral hospital regards open method ETS in ICU and HDU of CHUK. Methods: The study population was critical care nurses. Census of a population of 29 clinical nurses was observed on a practice of one event of open method ETS; while a tool of twenty four items observational schedule where used for data collection. Data findings and conclusion: Twenty five out of twenty nine participants (86%) failed to demonstrate quality of nursing practice on different items of the observation tool as prepared for guiding action of open method ETS study. One sample T-Test was used for hypotheses testing where greater study significance was observed with a P value of less than 0.0001. Nurses in ICU and HDU of CHUK showed poor practice on open method ETS and their practices was not evidence based.