[John Manning]

I'm looking for some information on pediatric IV standards of care (i.e. how many attempts can one nurse make, best sites, max fluid volumes, etc.) Are there any references you can think of ? Thanks

[adellisrn]

Hi I am a nurse in Canada..I do not know how much things change from here to there but where I work the following are a few of our policies...

We change the tubing every 72 hrs
The sight depends on the age....Babies, under a few months a foot/ankle is OK or a scalp vein. For older kids ( that can crawl walk, grab, pull) a hand or anticubital is best.
We generally make 2-3 attempts before we call someone else. usually two nurses try and then the DR tries, and if we still have no luck than we call the anesthitist is called.
If you are looking for specific information I am sure there is a book on it somewhere.

Amanda

[sus_rn]

We limit our IV attempts to two per RN. Usually only two nurses make an attempt. After that we ask someone from the PICU, transport team, or the ER. If the patient is a newborn or infant and we have difficulty, we also ask assistance from our NICU staff. Our policy states that IV sites are to be changed every 3 days unless it has to be changed sooner (ie. infiltration, falls out, etc.) or if the patient is a known 'difficult IV access' the line can stay in longer as long as it's closely observed as per policy. We also change our tubing every 72 hours, except for HAL/IL tubing which is changed every 24 hours. Hope this helps.