The Doreen McCarthy Nursing Research Grant (DMNRG) is a collaborative initiative between RPH Research Foundation and the Royal Perth Hospital Nursing Research Foundation.
It was created in honour of Professor Doreen McCarthy, former Director of Nursing at Royal Perth Hospital, who was a champion for nursing research and instigated many initiatives aimed at promoting nurses as researchers and research into nursing practice. Doreen went on to be the founding Dean of Nursing at The University of Notre Dame Australia's School of Nursing & Midwifery in Fremantle.
Kelly-Ann Hahn has received the 2023 Doreen McCarthy Nursing Research Grant for her project ‘An Audit of the clinical indications and collection midstream urine based at Royal Perth Bentley Group’.
Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are the most common hospital-acquired complications. However, the diagnosis of urinary tract infections (UTIs) poses challenges due to the absence of a universally agreed gold standard for microbiological results or clinical symptoms that can accurately identify an active UTI.
This lack of consensus often leads to unnecessary requests for midstream urine MSU cultures, resulting in a significant financial burden on healthcare expenditure.
Ms Hahn’s research project aims to investigate whether healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses at Royal Perth Hospital, are overly reliant on urine samples.
Ultimately, this research project seeks to prevent patients from being treated for UTIs unnecessarily, thereby improving patient care and optimising healthcare resources.
UTIs occur when bacteria enter and multiply in the urinary tract, leading to inflammation and infection. The dangers of UTIs include increased patient morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, higher healthcare costs, and the potential for complications such as bloodstream infections.
An overreliance on MSU to determine treatment options may result in the unnecessary treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria or failure to treat clinically significant bacteriuria.
By conducting this audit, valuable information can be obtained, which can help improve hospital processes, nurses’ education, the cost of MSU cultures and patient outcomes.
We are proud to support this project through the 2023 Doreen McCarthy Nursing Research Grant, delivered in partnership with the RPH Nursing Research Foundation.
