World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERMITTENT SALINE FLUSHING IN MAINTAINING THE PATENCY OF PERIPHERAL VENOUS CATHETER AMONG PATIENTS IN SARVODAYA HOSPITAL, BANGALORE

*Dr. Vinoli S. G., Msc (N), Ph. D (N), PGDHM and Dr. Hemalatha R., Msc (N), Ph.D (N)

ABSTRACT

Statement of the problem: “An experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of intermittent saline flushing in maintaining the patency of peripheral venous catheter among patients in Sarvodaya hospital, Bangalore”. Background: Intravenous catheters represent the most common parenteral site for medication delivery. These catheters needs to be changed once in three days, or if they dislodge from the vein. Maintenance of the patency of these intravenous catheters is important for minimizing patients discomfort and the expense associated with replacement Saline flush is important for patients, as it reduces the need for the potentially painful process of placing vascular lines, and also helps control costs by reducing the number of devices used for each patient. Objectives : To assess the patency of peripheral venous catheter among patients in experimental and control groups, to determine patency of peripheral venous catheter after intermittent saline flushing in experimental group, to compare the patency of peripheral venous catheter between experimental and control group, to find out association between patency of peripheral venous catheter with selected demographic variables. Methods: True experimental research design with experimental and control group was adopted. The study was conducted in Sarvodaya Hospital, Bangalore. Simple random sampling was used to select 60 samples based on certain predetermined criteria. Subjects were randomly divided in to experimental and control group as they were admitted. Each group consisted of 30 members. Data was collected from the subjects through observational check list after obtaining an informed consent. Pre test was conducted on the first day of admission. The IV catheter in situ was observed in both the groups for pain, return blood flow and patency after administering medications. From the second day saline flushing was administered intermittently every 2nd hourly in the experimental group and patency was observed. As per prepared tool if a particular observation was present 2 marks was given and 1 was given if absent. The data obtained were analyzed and interpreted in terms of the objectives and hypothesis of the study. Results: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results show that the experimental group's pre-test mean score was 12.1, with a standard deviation of 2.8, and that its post-test mean was 11.7, with a standard deviation of 2.2. The paired 't' test value was 19.6, which was significant at the level of 0.05. This shows that the intervention of 2nd hourly intermittent saline flushing is effective in the experimental group. An analysis of mean practice to compare peripheral venous catheter patency in experimental and control groups shows that, the mean score for experimental group is 29 with the standard deviation of 6 and for the control group, the mean score is 36.8 with a standard deviation of 7.3. Based on the calculated „t? test value of 13.36, this is significant at 0.05. And there was no significant association between the patency of peripheral venous catheter and selected demographic variables such as age (F=1.88), gender (F=0.71), previous hospitalization (F=1.39) and duration of hospitalization (F=2.37) in the control group, Where as in the experimental group, there was a significant association between the patency of peripheral venous catheter and duration of hospitalization (F=5.67), and no significant association between patency of peripheral venous catheter and selected demographic variables such as age (F=0.61), gender (F=0.10) and previous hospitalization (F=0.01). Conclusion: The study concluded that administration of 2nd hourly intermittent saline flushing among patients with peripheral venous catheter will maintain the patency of peripheral venous catheter.

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