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Nearly 800 hospitals around the world have enrolled in a study of the use of drips in patients.
More than 100 Australian hospitals signed up to the One Million Global (OMG) Peripheral Intravenous Catheters’ study, including the Sunshine Coast’s Nambour General Hospital.
Professor Marianne Wallis, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, brought the study to the attention of nursing staff at Nambour, as well as to staff and research students at USC. Wallis said the study received no allocated funding and was instead driven by concerned nurses and midwives who wanted to improve patient care.
Annette Faithfull-Byrne from the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service said the collaboration highlights how nurses and researchers can work together in the interest of patient-care research.
“I trust that this heralds a future of exciting collaborations in the interest of improving the health of our community," Faithfull-Byrne said.
Wallis added: “We've had data back from over 400 hospitals in 65 countries so far and data is still coming in. All of this is being done by nurses who have just mobilised themselves on the ground and organised it.”
The research is being surveyed by project teams at the University of Western Sydney and Griffith University. Results are expected later this year.
Wallis recently presented a free community lecture titled "Drips, drains and wounds – how can nurses stop hospitals hurting people". In the presentation, she discussed the research work she is doing with the Alliance for Vascular Access Training and Research. She said the group’s work has challenged some of the current policies and practices surrounding vascular access.
“We have found that, for example, routinely changing these devices is not necessary and is more wasteful and harmful to patients than just checking them regularly,” she explained. “If there seems to be a problem, take them out or change them then, rather than having some routine practice where you automatically change every one, every third day.”
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