The nasal oxygen practice in intensive care units in China: A multi-centered survey

Abstract

BackgroundNurses frequently administer nasal oxygen therapy for patients in intensive care units (ICUs). However, little is known about the current status, nurses’ management and perception on the nasal oxygen therapy in China. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the nasal oxygen practice of ICUs in China to provide insights into future direction.MethodsA cross-sectional survey on 10 hospitals was conducted. A self-designed questionnaire was administered to ICU nurses. Descriptive statistics, univariate, and multiple stepwise regression analyses were performed to analyze the respondents’ questionnaires.ResultsA total of 580 respondents with a response rate of 96.67% were included in this study. The average correct answer rate was 58.28%. The current status of nasal oxygen administration in ICUs in Chinese hospitals lagged behind the recommendations of related guidelines. Nurses in China were eager to learn about the updated knowledge on oxygen therapy. The gender, age, clinical experience, degree, job title, and classification of working hospitals were not related to the oxygen therapy-related knowledge scores (all P>0.05).ConclusionMany deficiencies are observed regarding the nasal oxygen practice in ICUs of Chinese hospitals. Increased efforts by authorities and medical staff are required to narrow the gap between the current status of oxygen practice and the recommendations from related guidelines.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of oxygen administration among nurses working in University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, North Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia, 2022.

“…Evidence showed that education improves the knowledge regarding oxygen administration 10 , and in addition to nurses, the majority of medical doctors were included in a study conducted in Nigeria. However, the current study nding is lower than a study conducted in China (58.28%) 11 . Studies revealed that knowledge of oxygen therapy varied because of several problems including lack of training on oxygen therapy, due to the absence of written guideline s12 , formation of new policies and, procurement and maintenance of oxygen administration activities in developed countries 13 .…”

Humidified versus nonhumidified low‐flow oxygen therapy in children with Pierre‐Robin syndrome: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…Currently, the low‐flow oxygen delivery by the nasal cannula is routinely humidified clinically with cold bubble water in China (Wen et al, ), and at present, the textbooks of nursing education in China still recommend the use of cold bubble water for low‐flow oxygen humidification (Ma & Miao, ); however, several recent studies (Sun, Zhang, & Cheng, ; Wen et al, ) have concluded that it is unnecessary to humidify the low‐flow oxygen routinely. Besides, the most related researches are conducted in adult population, the studies in the children population are very rare.…”

“…The nasal oxygen delivery is very common in clinical setting, especially in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), with a usage rate of 92.6% (Wen et al, ). The oxygen delivered by the nasal canal is generally low flow, and it can increase the blood oxygen content of the arteries, correct the hypoxic state of body and improve the prognosis of patients (Kourouche, Buckley, Munroe, & Curtis, ; Wittenstein, Ball, Pelosi, & Gama de Abreu, ).…”

“…Therefore, oxygen delivery with nasal cannula is very common in clinical practice. Besides, low‐flow nasal oxygen therapies are more common and widely used than the high‐flow oxygen therapy clinically (Wen et al, ). Therefore, it is very important to elucidate the safety and efficacy of nasal cannulas for oxygen delivery with different flows, such as if there are potential infection risks during humidification process of nasal cannulas for oxygen delivery.…”

Humidified versus nonhumidified low-flow oxygen therapy in children with Pierre-Robin syndrome: A randomized controlled trial

“…[2][3][4] Most European and North American countries use nonhumidified oxygen for low-flow oxygen, while China and Japan still often perform humidified oxygen in clinical practice. [5] The results of previous surveys [6,7] have showed that 84.48% of clinical nurses in China will perform humidification in oxygen supply regardless of the oxygen flow rate. At present, there are still big differences in humidification management in clinical nursing practice amongst different countries.…”