Effectiveness of the Clinical Practice Guideline for Prevention of Ventilator associated Pneumonia on Incidence of Pneumonia and Duration of Mechanical Ventilation among Traumatic Brain Injured Patients

Abstract

The two-group post test quasi-experimental design was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the clinical nursing practice guideline for prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia among traumatic brain injured patients. The samples consisted of 40 traumatic brain injured patients with mechanical ventilator in sub-intensive care unit of Sawanpracharak hospital, Nakornsawan province, 20 of which, were intervention group receiving nursing care following the clinical nursing practice guideline for prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia and 20 of which, were control group receiving conventional nursing care. Data were collected from November 1, 2006 to November 30, 2007. Outcome indicators were the incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia and duration of mechanical ventilation. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square test, fisher’s exact test, and independent t-test.

The findings showed that

1. The incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia of patient with traumatic brain injury in the intervention group was significantly different from the control group.

2. The duration of mechanical ventilation of patient with traumatic brain injury in the intervention group was significantly shorter than the control group.

The findings indicated that the clinical nursing practice guideline for prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia could help patients with traumatic brain injury to decrease the incidence of ventilator associated pneumonia and duration of mechanical ventilation. Therefore, utilization of this clinical nursing practice guideline is recommended to prevent the occurrence of ventilator associated pneumonia in order to improve the quality of nursing care.