Influence of peritoneal dialysis training nurses' experience on peritonitis rates

This study examined the clinical impact of peritoneal dialysis (PD) training nurses regarding Gram-positive peritonitis among incident dialysis patients.

This study included 200 consecutive inception PD patients in a single center from September 1999 through April 2003. Effects of PD nurse trainers on the clinical outcomes of Gram-positive peritonitis were evaluated.

A total of 81 patients of 200 incident PD patients (mean age 56.9 yr) developed Gram-positive peritonitis. Mean Gram-positive peritonitis-free time for patients who were trained by nurses with years of experience in the lowest tertile was 58.8 mo, as compared with 47.0 mo in those who were trained by nurses within the intermediate tertile of experience (log-rank test, P = 0.044). After adjustment for diabetes and relevant coexisting medical factors, PD trainers' having > or =3 yr of experience, body mass index, and baseline serum albumin were the only independent risk factors for the time to a first Gram-positive peritonitis. Training nurses with > or =3 yr of experience was associated with more than two-fold increased likelihood of subsequent Gram-positive peritonitis, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.24 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14 to 4.41; P = 0.020). When the lowest tertile group of trainers was used as the reference group in the Cox proportional hazards regression model, the hazard ratio was 1.94 (95% CI 1.04 to 3.61) for the intermediate tertile and 2.13 (95% CI 1.12 to 4.06) for the highest tertile. Experience of the PD trainers was not predictive of Gram-negative peritonitis.

The finding of negative association between the trainers' length of time in practice and peritonitis incidence reminds us that active continued learning and applying principles of adult learning might be the answers for the nurses to teach the patients.