Developing and implementing a new bladder irrigation chart.

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Nursing
• Medical Documentation

Background:

• Continuous bladder irrigation (CBI) is a common post-urological surgery procedure.
• Accurate monitoring of fluid input and output is crucial for patient management during CBI.
• Current documentation practices for fluid balance were found to be inadequate.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address identified inconsistencies and omissions in fluid balance documentation.
• To develop an improved charting system for CBI nursing care.
• To enhance the accuracy of fluid balance records in clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Observation of current nursing practice.
• Discussion with ward teams to identify documentation issues.
• Development and adaptation of a new fluid balance chart based on identified needs.

Main Results:

• The existing documentation led to inaccuracies in fluid balance recording.
• A new chart was developed to mitigate documentation inconsistencies and omissions.
• The new chart aims to improve the accuracy of fluid balance monitoring.

Conclusions:

• Inadequate documentation poses a risk to accurate fluid balance monitoring in CBI.
• The newly developed chart offers a potential solution to improve documentation quality.
• Clinical practice informed the development of a more effective nursing tool for CBI.