Does your facility have a dedicated I.V. team?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. Does your facility have a dedicated I.V. team?

    • 31
      Yes
    • 30
      No

61 members have participated

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Specializes in med surg, ortho, onc, peds.

aw, it's not sad, i think it's about practice.

i was straight forward about my lack of skill and my fantastic floor managers sacrificed their veins (with EMLA haha) until i had succeeded. in 4 months i'm up to 12 iv's because the other nurses knew i needed practice, so they were all too excited to let me try their pt's.

i think it's not good to have to rely on teams b/c if there is a code or an urgent situation where a pt needs immediate iv meds and they need an iv started or new one, the pt's nurse has to wait until someone can start one...that is not the best patient care practice and could be seen as delayed pt care, as the RN should be able to do it.:nono:

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

I have been an IV nurse for 22 years of my 27 year career. I also work PD for a home infusion company. Some nurses do not fully understand the complete role of aa excellent infusion team. Not only can we access veins,place PICCs,perform dressing changes,perform therapeutic phlebotomy,declot lines,treat infiltrates and extravastions,troubleshoot any and all VAD problems and any and all IV problems that can occur,and believe me I have seen a lot-----we also have the theory behind all the decisions we make. I am not there just to gain access. I am there to educate,consult with other health care workers,educate pts revise and update protocols and I could go on and on. To say it de-skills other nurses is to not fully understand the depth of the speciality. After studying the subject for 22 years I am still learning. I personally have never stopped someone from attempting their own starts rather I have spent a good part of my career training others. So yes I am an advocate for IV teams. Also studies by Dr.Maki repeatedly show a lower infection rate of 25-35% when dedicated IV teams perform CVC dressing changes. That is a huge difference. Also it is a class 1a recommendation from the CDC to have dedicated IV teams. The reason is again,when used the a a significant decrease in infection rates.

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