Blind Stick

[Nursebarebari]

My dear fellow nurses, recently I have become confident and very good at IV insertion and I'm even helping co-workers with their pt. But I don't understand how to do the blind stick method, I thought you just have to visualize the anatomy of the veins and stick, but a wo-worker said I was wrong. She could not explain to me how to do it. So could any of you experience nurses educate me on how to do it. Your input will be really appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance for your answers and for all your help. :bow:

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

i either need to see or feel it. i did 'blind stick' a couple times but that was mostly because of severe edema and a bit of luck and the necessity for an iv so i 'went for it'.

otessa

with patients who have a lot of edema in their arms making it hard to find veins, try this. . .wrap the arm with an ace wrap from the wrist to the elbow (the direction going toward the heart) and elevate it on a pillow. you can also apply a warm towel over the ace as well. let the arm rest that way for at least 15 minutes, remove the ace and apply a tourniquet to see if you get better vein visualization. if not, put the ace wrap back on and do a little more waiting. when you are able to visualize a vein and insert an iv, leave some of the proximal cannula near the hub out of the insertion site and anchor the hub very securely. when the edema comes back, and it will, the patient's skin needs some room to expand with edema. if you don't allow for that, the edematous tissues are only going to engorge with fluid again and end up pushing the hub of the iv device out or cause the skin around the hub of the iv cannula to become irritated and/or break down.