CAPSTONE PROJECT PROPOSAL: DECREASING CAUTIS

Running head: CAPSTONE PROJECT PROPOSAL: DECREASING CAUTIS Capstone Project Proposal: Decreasing CAUTIs NRS-490 Capstone Project Proposal: Decreasing CAUTIs Introduction 2 CAPSTONE PROJECT PROPOSAL: DECREASING CAUTIS A catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is a term very familiar to healthcare professionals. It is term used to describe a person that develops a urinary tract infection (UTI) after having a urinary catheter placed. CAUTIs are quite common, in fact it is the most common healthcare acquired infection experienced by patients (Underwood, 2015). Almost a decade ago, Medicaid and Medicare declared that hospitals would no longer be reimbursed for patients requiring additional care, after developing a CAUTI (Gittlen, 2016). Hospitals have since made CAUTI prevention of upmost importance. Any method to prevent the incidence rates of CAUTIs has spiked interest in hospitals around the country. The following paper will summarize my capstone project proposal regarding CAUTI prevention. It will cover both what the problem is (CAUTI rates) and the setting in which it will be observed. It will also cover the impact of a CAUTIs and their significance. Lastly, I will provide a proposed solution as to a way to decrease the incidence rates of CAUTIs. Problem/Setting The problem/setting is to decrease the incident rates of CAUTIs on a general adult medicine unit at an acute care hospital. While great strides have been made in prevention of CAUTIs, there is still much room for improvement. A CAUTI is not only damaging to a patient's well-being, but also has a detrimental fiscal impact on the facilities caring for these patients. Impact When a patient has a catheter placed there are modifiable risk factors that can be addressed to minimize the chance of them developing a CAUTI. Some of the risk factors include: using a catheter for the wrong reason, keeping the catheter in too long, nurses not using aseptic technique with catheter care, and not maintaining a closed system (Gesmundo, 2016). As mentioned, each and every one of these risk factors are modifiable. Each time a patient develops