Background & Aim: The central venous pressure measurement is a common and important care provided by nurses in intensive units. The measurement should be according to the pre-defined standards. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of using a checklist in measuring central venous pressure by nurses .

  Methods & Materials: This was a nonequivalent group design on 70 nurses working in ICUs. T he quality of measurement of central venous pressure by recruited nurses were measured via direct observation in the control (n=35) and experiment (n=35) groups. The intervention group nurses were recommended to use a performance checklist in each measurement of central venous pressure for one month. At the end of the intervention, the performances of both groups were evaluated through observation. Collected data were analyzed using the Chi-squared test, paired and independent test in the SPSS-17 . 

  Results: At b aseline, the mean scores in both groups were not statistically significant (P=0.7) The mean performance score of the control group at the beginning and one month later were 7.64±2.33 and 7.65±2.28, respectively (P=0.6). In the experiment group, the mean performance score was 7.85±2.29 before the intervention and 9.28±3.16 after the intervention (P=0.001). T he difference between the scores before and after the intervention were significant (P=0.001) in the intervention group .

  Conclusion: Using checklist by critical care nurses could enhance their performances in measurement of central venous pressure. This method can be used as an accessible, inexpensive, and simple method to improve quality of nursing practices .