Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a personalized nursing pathway in reducing hospital-acquired infections among leukemia patients during hospitalization through a single-center retrospective analysis. METHODS: This study retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 291 adult leukemia patients admitted to the Hematology Department of The First Hospital of Putian between January 2018 and December 2022. Patients were divided into two groups based on nursing intervention models: the control group (n = 138) received standard nursing care, while the intervention group (n = 153) was managed using a personalized nursing pathway, which included individualized infection risk assessment, dynamic nursing goals, targeted hygiene protocols, and real-time multidisciplinary coordination. Primary outcomes included infection incidence, infection-related readmission, antibiotic use duration, and length of hospital stay. Secondary outcomes included patient satisfaction and nursing compliance rates. RESULTS: The incidence of hospital-acquired infections was significantly lower in the intervention group compared to the control group (12.4% vs 24.6%, p < 0.01). The average duration of antibiotic therapy was reduced by 2.6 days (p = 0.015), and hospital stay was shortened by 3.2 days on average (p = 0.022). Patient satisfaction with nursing care improved notably (92.8% vs 78.3%, p < 0.01), and nursing compliance to infection control protocols increased to 95.6% in the intervention group. CONCLUSION: A personalized nursing pathway significantly reduces the risk of infection among hospitalized leukemia patients and enhances the efficiency and quality of nursing care. This model offers a feasible, effective approach for infection prevention in high-risk hematology wards and warrants further prospective validation.