The objective of the study was to determine the efficacy of educational strategy to improve the performance of nursing staff in performing preventive procedures of ventilator-associated pneumonia. This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted during 2011 in an intensive care unit in Goiânia, Brazil, with the nursing staff allocated in the intervention group (n=24) and comparison group (n=11). Thirty days after workshops (intervention), the groups was systematically observed using a checklist including ventilator setting-up, angle for bed head elevation, patient decubitus position changing, use of personal protective equipment, bronchial and oral hygiene, verification of the cuff pressure and installation of enteral feeding. Each procedure was used as a unit of analysis and outcome. The intervention was effective for cleaning the tongue (51%), for the ventilator setting-up (43%) and for the correct order tube-nose-mouth during bronchial hygiene (13%). Studies in different scenarios should confirm the efficacy of studied strategy (workshop), as well as identify additional educational strategies to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated; Education, Continuing; Nursing
