Development and clinical application of nursing-sensitive indicators for midline catheterization care using evidence-based methods

Background: Midline catheters (MCs) have been widely applied in clinical settings as they can provide painless venous access, thus improving the quality of life and reducing medical costs. Nursing-sensitive indicators (NSIs) are real and effective measures of nursing quality. Using evidence-based methods, we established the NSIs of MC care, with an attempt to provide a basis for evaluating and monitoring nursing quality for MC use. Methods: An electronic search was performed in 5 databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), Wanfang Data, PubMed, and Web of Science to identify studies that evaluated nursing quality during MC use. Two evaluators independently selected literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias. According to the Donabedian's structureprocess-outcome model, we divided the NSIs into 3 levels. Results: The established NSIs for MC use included 3 indicators (i.e., structure indicators, process indicators, and outcome indicators), among which there were 3 level-2 indicators and 7 level-3 indicators at the structure level, 2 level-2 indicators and 9 level-3 indicators at the process level, and 5 level-2 indicators and 17 level-3 indicators at the outcome level. Conclusion:The established NSIs for MC use offer a set of objective criteria for evaluating nursing performance during MC use and will help to improve nursing quality control.