OCD about central line infections - need perspective!

[laceysrn]

Hi allnurses! I have been a nurse for almost 2 years now on a busy med-surg floor. It's going well overall, but I'm struggling with overthinking my IV care. I'm a little OCD at baseline, and especially when I'm caring for immunesuppressed patients, I can get into a bad cycle. I think to myself -" did I touch the hub? I'm not sure, so I better clean it..." this cycle can be a waste of time and supplies though. Everyone always says "that's good!" When I say I'm OCD about infection, but I think it's getting out of hand...I worry that I may have touched a patient's line, and now they're going to go septic, all because of me, and it distracts me from the actual important things!

can anyone help me with some mental tools or perspective? Thank you!!

[vanessaem, BSN, RN]

I know you don't want to see this but, being OCD about central line infections is good. Better to be OCD about that kind of thing than to be lackadaisical about it and your patients suffer the consequences. I don't think you will have any patient be upset with you when they know you're trying to keep them safe. Think about how you would feel if you knew you were the cause of someone's CLABSI.

[laceysrn]

Thank you for the comments everyone, I appreciate it. I agree it is probably better to be conscientious than careless. However I see that sometimes I am wasting time and supplies by going over the top. I appreciated those of you who advised doing research on best practice, and then just focusing on the task at hand. I'm hopeful that I'll find a reasonable balance - I think it will just take a little time! Thanks again!

[SouthpawRN]

I had a discussion with our infection control dept RN last week, I found out that the reason they discontinued the caps is that too many staff were removing the cap and giving the injection into the port without scrubbing, They feel that scrubbing with alcohol for 15 seconds is more effective than removing the cap and not scrubbing, but I was also told that its okay too still do both. So my plan is to do both on central lines and patients that meet our potential sepsis score. alcohol wipes alone on others, at least till the hospital runs out of caps. BTW the caps are supposed to stay on the ports at all times. they require a minimum of 3 minutes to be effective.