As far back as 1970 moss and staunton demonstrated

“As far back as 1970, Moss and Staunton demonstrated that drawing blood through a 25-gauge
catheter did not cause hemolysis. They reported that hemolysis was caused by using a high
pressure delivery system, not by the gauge of the intravenous catheter” (Makic, 2013). There are
three things nurses should consider:
1. Nursing assessment should guide the choice of intravenous catheter size in non-urgent
packed red blood cell transfusions.
2. To achieve the desired clinical effects of a packed red blood cell infusion, infusion of
blood products without the application of pressure is necessary, rather than insertion
of the largest intravenous catheter possible.
3. Using a smaller-gauge intravenous catheter to transfuse packed red blood cells
increases patients’ comfort and satisfaction, and by potentially avoiding the need for

insertion of a central catheter, eliminates some costs and thus reduces costs overall
(Makic, 2013).
Evaluating healthcare practice continually and adopting evidence based practice
interventions as research evolves and new evidence becomes available should be the norm in
healthcare practice. Some traditional practices of critical care nurses should be replaced with
evidence-based practices. Critical care nurses provide an essential contribution to the translation
of best evidence into practice by continually moving nursing practice forward in the care of the
most vulnerable patients (Makic, 2013).
References:
The Impact of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and the Next Big Ideas. (n.d.). Retrieved July
26, 2016, from
TableofContents/Vol-18-2013/No2-May-2013/Impact-of-Evidence-Based-Practice.html
Response:
Evidence to support the importance of hand hygiene in preventing infection dates back to the
1800’s. The World Health Organization published guidelines for hand hygiene in health care to
increase patient safety by ensuring clean care. The guidelines state that for transmission of
organisms from health care workers to patients, the following sequence of events must occur:
1. The organisms must be present on the patient’s skin or inanimate objects and transfer
to the health care worker’s hands
2. The organism must survive for several minutes on the hands of the health care worker
3. Hand washing or hand antisepsis by the health care worker is inadequate or omitted
4. The contaminated hands of the health care worker come in direct contact with another
patient or inanimate object that will be in direct contact with the patient.