A Methodological Study to Develop a Standard Operational Protocol for Nurses on Central Line Catheter Care of Patients in Selected Intensive Care Units

AIM: This study aims to develop a standard operational protocol (SOP) for central line catheter care for nurses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A preliminary draft of protocol based on extensive review of the literature was developed. The current practices of the nurses regarding central line catheter care were observed. Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted with the nurses to identify the problems encountered by them during care of central line. Four rounds of Delphi were conducted to validate the protocol. The protocol was found to be feasible in terms of understanding, clarity and easy implementation after conducting a pilot study. An observation checklist was developed from the final draft of the protocol. The nurses were taught regarding the central line catheter care as per the protocol. 30 nurses were observed during central line catheter care by the researcher. After implementation of the protocol, feedback of the nurses was taken by conducting FGDs. RESULTS: Content validity index of each item in the protocol was acceptable. The overall Cronbach's alpha value of the checklist was 0.75. It was concluded that the checklist is reliable and each item has a contribution in the checklist. CONCLUSION: This protocol addresses interventions to enable staff to provide proper care of the central line catheter to prevent CLABSI.