The effect of the care bundle to prevent unplanned extubations in the pediatric intensive care unit

The study was conducted in a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group to determine the effect of the care bundle developed to prevent unplanned extubations in the pediatric intensive care unit. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 80 children (Pre-test group = 40; Post-test group = 40) aged 0-18 years, who were hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit of a training and research hospital between May 2021 and May 2022 and who received invasive mechanical ventilator support as orally intubated. Intubated Patient Follow-up Form and Comfort Scale were used for data collection. Descriptive characteristics of the children in the study were similar (p>0.05). Unplanned extubation occurred in 30% (n=12) of the pretest group and 10% (n=4) of the posttest group. The frequency of unplanned extubation was calculated with the formula: Number of Unplanned Extubations Occurred/Number of Ventilator Days x 100. The frequency of unplanned extubation in the post-test group (0.87) was significantly lower than that in the pretest group (2.65) (p=0.021). As a result, it was determined that the developed care bundle was effective in reducing the frequency of unplanned extubation