A quantitative pilot study evaluating the effectiveness of a venepuncture and cannulation study day

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Skills Training
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Continuing nursing education requires demonstrable benefits for practice.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of training programs is crucial for justifying costs.
• Peripheral intravenous cannulation is a fundamental nursing skill requiring competency validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot a tool assessing factors for successful completion of practice documentation after peripheral intravenous cannulation training.
• To identify variables associated with timely and complete record-keeping post-training.
• To inform strategies for optimizing in-service nursing education.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative study in a Northern Ireland in-service training organization.
• Survey distributed to 344 nurses trained in peripheral intravenous cannulation.
• Analysis of 97 returned questionnaires (28% response rate) examining completion times and influencing factors.

Main Results:

• 72% of nurses achieved successful cannulation at least five times, most completing documentation within one month.
• No significant difference in completion time across nursing grades (p=0.395).
• A statistically significant, though weak, correlation between highest academic grade and completion time (p<0.001).
• Hospital nurses completed supervised practice and documentation significantly faster than community nurses (p=0.003).

Conclusions:

• The piloted tool provides insights into the completion of practice documentation post-training.
• Academic achievement has a minimal impact on documentation completion time.
• Work setting (hospital vs. community) influences the speed of practice documentation completion for nurses trained in peripheral intravenous cannulation.