Impact of a health intervention on eye care in pediatric intensive care unit patients

Introduction: Eye care is part of patient care in intensive care units (ICU). Objective: to analyze the impact of a health intervention on compliance with eye care measures and the incidence of ocular injuries in pediatric ICU patients before and after training for healthcare personnel. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in the pediatric ICUs of the Acosta Nu Pediatric General Hospital. A quasi-experimental before and after study was designed. In the pre-intervention cohort (October-December 2017) and in the post-intervention cohort (July-December 2018), the incidence of eye injuries and the percentage of compliance with the eye care measures were determined, staff training was carried out between both cohorts, finally the results obtained were compared. Children aged 0 to 18 years admitted to pediatric ICUs were included. The data were analyzed in the SPSSv21 system. Results: During the study period, 70 patients were admitted to the pre-intervention cohort and 120 in the post-intervention cohort. 51 (58.6%) and 63 (52.5%) were male, respectively, 18 (25.7%) and 19 (15.8%) presented abnormal eye opening, 6 (8.6%) and 3 (3.3%) had corneal injuries, the most common ocular lesions observed were corneal erosion in 8.5% (6/70) and 3.3% (3/120), compliance with eye care measures occurred in 54 (77, 1%) and 120 (100%) respectively in the pre and post intervention cohorts. Conclusion: The training of healthcare personnel in eye care decreased the frequency of corneal injuries.