Indications for PICC insertion

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Does anybody work in a hospital with a protocol for PICC insertion? The hospital that I work in does not, and many of the nurses are frustrated b/c by the time we "get" to put a PICC in most of the babies veins are blown. I am working on establishing some guidlines for PICC insertion. Any thoughts?:)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

This is so frustrating, isn't it? I saw it happen time and time again when I worked as an IV Therapist on adults. You can start by contacting the Infusion Nurses Society. They certify IV nurses and develop the standards of care for intravenous nursing. Their website is http://www.ins1.org. It would be terrific if you took the inititive to become IV certified and started something over where you work!

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I don't think we have one either. Usually if a kid has bad veins we'll push for it ASAP. Or if the kid will be on TPN or ABX for a long time.But yeah, it figures they'll want to put it in when the kid's last vein is blown!

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Thanks for the input!

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We are not allowed to use either antecubital vein for peripheral IV access so that if the baby needs a picc there should be something there. Everyone in my unit seems to get a picc if they are going to be on TPN for more than a few days. I love it!

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The nurses love them. Some of our docs, however, are hesitant about using them. One of the fellows will not allow them on his patients b/c of infection risk. It's really a crap shoot--depends more on which doctors are on rotation in the unit for the month as to how many PICC lines are placed. If there is an MRSA outbreak you can just forget about even asking.

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