If an IV catheter is coming out, can you just push it back in?

[Vani1925]

I went to visit my friend at the hospital because she just gave birth to her baby. She had many complications and had many IV punctures on both her arms, plus an IV already in. Because I'm such a curious person I decided to look at her IV site. When I looked, her IV catheter was half way out and sort of curved. I called the nurse and told her to come look at it. She came in and looked at it and just pushed it back in and put some more tape on it. I was surprised by this because I thought that it could cause an infection after the catheter was half way out for who knows how long. Plus she did not have a tegaderm on her IV site, just a bunch of tape all over. I guess it's how they do it at that hospital, but I have only seen IV's get covered with tegaderms and not just tape, with all that tape it kind of made it hard to see the IV site clearly. So I asked the nurse if reinserting a catheter that was already half way out could not lead to an infection, and she said not as long as it didn't come out all the way. Is this correct?

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

Wouldn't the IV infiltrate at thst point?

Not necessarily, if it's still in the vessel. If it's in the vein and you advance it, it's just going to go further into the vein. If it's come out far enough and goes into the tissues, then yes it will infiltrate. Each one has to be assessed independently.