Blood culture tests are the gold standard for diagnosing potentially fatal bloodstream infections. Maintaining sterile technique is critical to ensuring accurate diagnoses. However, blood culture contamination remains a persistent issue across all hospitals. Contamination leads to extended hospital stays and increased antibiotic exposure, ultimately increasing hospital costs and patient risk. Experts at the Johns Hopkins Hospital identified ultrasound-guided blood culture collection, a procedure commonly performed by nurses and Vascular Access Teams, as a key target for lowering these contamination rates.

We created a procedural animation for healthcare personnel, such as nurses, physicians and medical technicians, to accompany hands-on training in ultrasound-guided blood culture collection. The animation illustrates each step of the collection process while highlighting several key points where contaminants may enter. An illustrated roadmap within the animation serves as both a visual checkpoint for video viewers and as a quick reference sheet for the procedure. Initial stakeholder feedback indicated materials were engaging and useful as supplemental resources for the ultrasound-guided procedure and sterile collection techniques.

As a next step, we will recruit 50 healthcare personnel to assess the effectiveness of the animation in procedural teaching and highlighting sterile practice. Future applications may include integrating animation and quick reference visuals into procedural clinical training. Blood culture contamination rates are continuously tracked by the hospital, and the final goal of this project is to see if these adjunct learning materials help lower contamination rates after training implementation.