Health care professionals’ compliance to tracheal suctioning policy at a tertiary care hospital

Objective: To assess the compliance of tracheal suctioning practices against the standard guidelines of a tertiary care hospital, with regard to the participants’ professional characteristics. Methods: Using cross sectional study design, forty health care professionals (HCPs) were assessed twice, using a quantitative structured observational design, for tracheal suctioning practices, in one of the surgical care units of the tertiary care hospital. Tracheal suctioning policy which was used as a tool, its inter-rater reliability was tested and each step showed the Kappa value of 0.65 to 1.000. Data was analyzed using epidata info version 3.5.1 and SPSS version 19. Results: From a total of 80 observations, 30% showed compliance, 50% partial compliance whereas, 20% indicated non-compliance. Conclusion: The study results highlight the need for improving the overall compliance with the tracheal suctioning guidelines of evidence based practices to minimize the adverse effects and enhance patient safety related to tracheal suctioning practices. The current study also provides an opportunity to motivate the HCPs compliant in the practices of tracheal suctioning by appreciate their competence.