Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Caring for Patients Receiving Peripheral Intravenous Therapy Inpatient Department, Fao Rai Hospital, Nong Khai Province

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) develop clinical practice guidelines for caring for patients receiving peripheral intravenous therapy, 2) evaluate the result of the guidelines in reducing the incidence of phlebitis, and 3) assess the satisfaction of nurses and patients with the developed guidelines. The study employed a research and development approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. It was conducted in three phases: 1) guideline development, involving nursing experts as the sample group, using guideline quality assessment tools and focus group discussions; 2) guideline implementation and evaluation, with a sample of 15 professional nurses and 100 patients receiving intravenous therapy, collecting data before and after guideline implementation, and conducting in-depth interviews; and 3) evaluation and conclusion, analyzing quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative data through content analysis.              

The results showed that the developed SMART-IV guidelines effectively reduced the incidence of phlebitis from 15% to 7% and decreased the infection rate from 10% to 3% (p<0.01). The response time to symptom changes decreased from 22.5 minutes to 12.8 minutes, and nurses' performance scores increased from 8.0 to 9.5. Both nurses and patients reported high levels of satisfaction with the guidelines. The SMART-IV guidelines effectively reduced complications and improved the quality of care for patients receiving peripheral intravenous therapy. Therefore, it is recommended to promote the implementation of these guidelines in other departments and to continue their development.