[Improving the Care Accuracy of Percutaneously Inserted Central Catheters Using Objective Structured Clinical...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Nursing Practice
• Neonatal Care

Context:

• Annually, Taiwan reports ~9,800 adverse events linked to medical tubing.
• Neonates, especially premature infants, rely on percutaneously inserted central catheters (PICCs) for essential fluids and nutrition.
• Healthcare professionals' clinical competence is often assessed using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs).

Purpose:

• To investigate the impact of an OSCE course on the accuracy of PICC use in nursing care.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of OSCE in reducing unexpected medical tubing removals in a neonatal intermediate unit.
• To explore the influence of OSCE on standard operating procedures, care protocols, and training equipment.

Summary:

• Nurses' knowledge of PICC procedures increased from 87% to 91.5% post-OSCE.
• Skill-care accuracy for PICCs dramatically improved from 59.1% to 97.3%.
• Incidents of unexpected tube removals decreased substantially from 63.6% to 16.7%.

Impact:

• OSCE courses demonstrably enhance the quality of PICC nursing care.
• The immediate feedback inherent in OSCE benefits both educators and trainees.
• Implementing OSCE can lead to safer and more effective neonatal care practices.