Bathing with IVs, central lines and wound dressings

[Guest650603]

Student here. Might be an obvious question, but I just don't know so I should ask:

1) What are different ways that you've seen nurses cover up IVs for patients who shower? What about protecting central line dressings from water? What about protecting wound dressings from water? (I've seen a few simple things nurses do to help protect sites from getting wet, but I just wanted to hear everyone general response for each of these three since I haven't seen all of these situations yet.)

2) What are the most important factors that determine whether it's safe for a patient to shower or not? Or whether they should just get a bed bath.

3) What are some other situations in hospitals that prevent regular showers for patients. (Besides bed rest or the obvious situation of a patient not able to get to a shower.)

Thanks for the help!

[SierraBravo]

As you know, it's important to cover the central line dressing and ports to prevent it from getting wet and thus creating a fertile breeding ground for bacteria. I've seen nurses use biohazard bags and tape. It works pretty well. Just tell the patient to not let direct running water hit the area that is covered and to be careful. Clearly showering with a central line is going to be different than showering without one, and the patient has to remain vigilant about that. For a peripheral IV I've seen clear saran wrap used with tape at the ends.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

Plastic wrap is great for covering IV's and PICC lines. For ports and central lines in the chest, you can wrap the chest with plastic wrap, or Glad Press and Seal works really well too (we tell families to use this at home). Cut a piece of Press and Seal, and just press it over dry skin around the dressing. Tape the edges for extra reinforcement. Direct the patient to shower with the water hitting their back, not face. We don't allow immersion baths (just like swimming) if the patient has a central line. For patients with a port, if clinically possible, the port can be deaccessed prior to the shower and reaccessed when done (coordinate the shower with a weekly needle change to reduce the infection risk from multiple port accessing.

[annie.rn]

We have a product that is basically a square of clear plastic with adhesive all around the perimeter. There are two different sizes and can be combined to cover a large area. I love them.

In the past, when I have not had the aforementioned dressing available, I've used a glove. I cut the fingers off, pull it over the patient's hand, up the arm and over the I.V. site. Then the top and bottom are sealed w/ waterproof tape. Works like a charm.