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A Protocol to Set Up Needle-Free Connector with Positive Displacement on Central Venous Catheter in Intensive Care Unit
Published on: July 13, 2019
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Addressing the Need for a Specialized Disconnection Device in Catheter Connection Management: A Case Study of
Amy C Cole1,2, Nicole Wiley3, Kerri Dalton4
1Division of Healthcare Engineering, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Nursing Reports (Pavia, Italy)
|February 25, 2025
Summary
Nurses often struggle to disconnect medical catheter connections, resorting to unsafe workarounds. A new specialized device demonstrated high acceptability and improved task performance for safe catheter disconnection.
Area of Science:
- Medical Device Design
- Patient Safety Engineering
- Healthcare Usability
Background:
- Modern catheter connections, designed for safety, present challenges for manual disconnection.
- Existing workarounds using improvised tools can damage catheters and compromise patient safety.
- A need exists for a dedicated medical device to facilitate safe catheter disconnection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the usability and effectiveness of a novel disconnection device for medical catheter connections.
- To assess user experience and identify areas for improvement in the device design.
- To explore the impact of the device on task performance and patient safety.
Main Methods:
- Mixed-methods study employing a user-centered design approach.
- Usability testing and surveys conducted with 139 nurses across two academic medical centers.
- Quantitative and qualitative data triangulated using Valdez's sociotechnical framework.
Main Results:
- 95% of nurses reported prior difficulty with luer connection disconnection.
- 85% of nurses reported positive experiences with the specialized disconnection device.
- User feedback indicated high acceptability, ease of use, and improved task performance.
Conclusions:
- The developed disconnection device shows high potential for improving catheter connection management and patient safety.
- Addressing practical challenges in healthcare settings through targeted product development can enhance safety protocols.
- The device's design and performance were positively received by end-users, suggesting clinical utility.
