The Journal of perinatal & neonatal nursing
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J Perinat Neonatal Nurs · Jun 1998
The clinical experience of continuous quality improvement in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Central line catheters are commonly placed in extremely low-birthweight infants to provide venous access for administration of hyperalimentation and medications. Infections is the most common complication of central line catheters in this patient population. ⋯ The continuous quality improvement process was used to modify central line practices, which led to a decrease in the rate of central line infections. For the first 8 months of 1997, the infection rate was below the 25th percentile according to the National Nosocomial infections Surveillance System data.
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J Perinat Neonatal Nurs · Jun 1998
Outcome measures after standardized pain management strategies in postoperative patients in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Written guidelines based on current research on infant pain assessment and management were developed by an interdisciplinary team in a neonatal intensive care unit of a regional medical center. Charts for infants who had undergone abdominal surgery were reviewed to compare patient outcomes before and after use of this pain management protocol. With the standardization of pain management strategies, the following improvements were noted: decreased length of time to extubation, decreased length of stay, better fluid management, and reduced side effects of narcotics. Additional benefits included improved pain management documentation, decreased cost, and decreased nursing time.