Central line dressing days

sistrmoon, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2015

We do it weekly 7 days from when it was last done, so any day of the week.

I believe standardizing it has been shown to reduce CLABIs, such as having a team of individuals do all central line dressing changes.

suzy12 · Mar 24, 2015

In my hospital in the UK , We change them when the dressing is a week old, but they get checked every day in the central line bundle and if they need to be changed before then due to some other reason, they do , eg the dressing is not in tact ..,etc

ixchel · Mar 24, 2015

We are weekly from the date of insertion with removal of the central line no later than 14 days after insertion.

sistrmoon, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2015

Oh and when the line is new, if there is a gauze dressing, that is changed 24-48 hours after insertion. And yes, we are not to reinforce. If it isn't occlusive, whole thing has to be changed.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2015

We change them 24 hrs post insertion, and then weekly. And of course if non-intact. If the dressing becomes non-intact more than once, the MD has to replace the whole line.

cheezwizz90 · Mar 24, 2015

We change them all on Sunday. If a patient has one placed on Saturday, then we still change it on Sunday to keep everyone on the same schedule. If it was found to be no longer intact on Friday and changed, we still change it again on Sunday to keep it "on schedule." It can be annoying in those situations where it was just changed or placed the day before. Exceptions to the Sunday change would be a soiled, non-intact dressing or bleeding/infected line...in those cases, we change it as needed and then...Sunday :)

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Mar 24, 2015

checked daily, changed weekly and each nurse is responsible for own patient

LindaB73 · Mar 24, 2015

All line dressings are changed on Monday. Even rooms done by day shift and odd rooms done by nights.

AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 24, 2015

At my hospital we do it every seven days. Of course we have an IV team, which I am happily a part of, so that makes it easier. Takes some work away from the primary nurse, which helps them, and it significantly reduces central line infection rates, ours have been zero for the past few months!

Annie

Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2015

Seems strange to have a set day to change them; not only are you making more work by changing them if they've already been done that week, but surely more frequent changes mean higher risk of infection?

cheezwizz90 · Mar 24, 2015

I agree that the risk of infection is increased with scheduled dressing changes if it just got changed the day before, but the chance that it will actually be changed is also increased, which may actually decrease the risk of infection. Not all nurses have the time to worry about looking at IV site dates/times and changing lines/dressings. The weekly set date allows for easier auditing and checking and one nurse could go around and change lots of them.