central line needle-less connector changes

[QuilterLPN]

Just a quick question about how to determine when it is time to change a cap or needle-less connector on a central line. The policy where I work states they must be changed q72hours, or daily for TPN, or after blood draws. So the TPN and blood draws is obvious, but every 72 hours....

We have a label we put on our iv tubing that says "change wednesday" or whatever, but we don't have such a system for saying "this cap here needs to be changed on monday". Is there a quick way that you use, preferably some sticker that goes on the cap itself? I'm hoping to not have to look under 4 layers of charting to find it.

what do you do?

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

we change it with the weekly dressing change if not being used for blood/tpn...so not q72 here.

[detroitdano]

Not sure on our policy, but I know for certain they have to be changed if accessed with a true needle, as well as with tubing changes.

Never heard anyone say if you draw blood from the line to change it. Heck, the docs draw back blood into the syringe to verify placement on a fresh central line but we don't change those caps again right? Doesn't seem to make sense. I suppose it could be in the policy, but like I said, not quite sure what it says about that.

[sapphire18]

Ours get changed Q72 hours; we date them with sharpies and also have a central line review in the chart to fill out daily that tells us when they need to be changed again.

Also, most of our pts have daily lab draws and we dont change them for that.

[QuilterLPN]

thanks for all the responses.