[cavery]

I am a new nurse trying to master IV insertion. We have Protective Plus and Safe-T-Intima IVs available. I am doing fine with the Safe-T-Intima but the other is impossible for me to use. My nurse manager now tells me that these IVs are only for pediatric use and that I can't use them on Med-Surg, even though there are several nurses who use them exclusively. My question is about other peoples experiences. Are the Intima ones really inferior? I am told that they blow sooner and generally don't last as long as the Protective Plus.The whole thing irks me. It seemed the nurse manager just wanted to rain on my parade and voiced a personal opinion but I want to know what you all have to say.
Thanks,
Claudia

[loricatus]

Although I have no experience with the protective plus, I can tell you that one hospital I worked for used the Safe-T-Intima system-wide (adults, peds, etc.) and insisted they were superior to the regular angiocaths. I think that what you were told was based upon using butterflies for the peds patients and the person didn't realize that the safe-t-intima is an general purpose butterfly iv. It does have the advantage of being more secure, less bloody (and easier to insert) than the angiocath type design.