Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Efficacy of an expanded ventilator bundle for the reduction of ventilator associated pneumonia

      Ventilator Associated pneumonia (VAP) is a serious hospital- acquired infection (HAI) and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Ventilator- associated pneumonia is a type of pneumonia in patients receiving mechanical ventilation that was not present at the time of intubation. The incidence of VAP ranges from 10% to 25%, with mortality of 10 % to 40 %( Al-Tawfiq & Abed, 2010, p. 552). Several interventions have been focused to help prevent the incidence of Ventilator associated pneumonia. The purpose of this study was intended to find the effectiveness of the new modified ventilator bundle for the prevention of VAP. The so called” ventilator bundle “(VB) represents a core group of maneuvers intended to decrease or eliminate VAP (Rella, Wojcik, Solis, & Khan, 2009). These VB includes combinations of head of the bed elevation, daily sedation vacation in addition to an assessment of weaning trial, gastric and deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, frequent change of the ventilator circuit and hand washing (Rella et al., 2009).
The study methods and design
      A quantitative method of research conducted in this study- that is, numeric information that results from some type of formal measurement and that is analyzed with statistical procedures (Polit & Beck, 2010). The study was conducted in the 18- bed adult MICU at St Joseph’s Regional Medical center in New Jersey (Rella et al., 2009). The study design was approved by the St Joseph’s Regional Medical Center Institutional Review Board. The researchers conducted a quantitative study, and   mainly examined the rate of VAP in the MICU after initiation of the modified VB for the period of 18 month, and reporting the successful implementation of a method of a modified VB in that unit. All mechanically ventilated patients were included in this study (Rella et al., 2009). In this pre and...