Published
My name is Sue.
I have a question for all you nurses. Especially anestesia (sp?) nurses. I am in poor health, I am Type-1 diabetic, anemic, and have chronic blood clots, due to limited mobility from rheumatoid arthritis, I have 2 artificial elbows as a result. I've developed arthritis as a child. So from years of health issues, my veins are totally shot. My hematologist recommended that I have a Port-a-cath implanted in my chest. So i did. NOW why the heck won't any of the nurses use it !?! Whenever I go for iron treatments for my anemia, the oncology / hematology nurses always use it.
I went in for a D&C last week, and I had to fight to get them to use it. They all stood around like they had never seen one before. I know it requires a special needle, flush, yada-yada. However the nurse that checked me in GAVE them the needle, they taped it to the chart! I know a phlebotomist can't use it, but shouldn't an anesthetist be able to use one??? I gave the nurse a hard time about getting a line in me, cause I am an impossible stick, and I just don't want to be jabbed over and over, afterall, thats why I have the port. After the trouble I had getting the port in, I went into Ketoacidosis post op.
I just wonder what the reason is, nurses never want to use it? Is it really that dangerous to use????
Hopefully I didn't sound like just another ***** of a patient,
Still not feeling well.
blondy2061h, MSN, RN
1 Article; 4,094 Posts
Surely you must do sterile procedures in the ER all the time, though. Do you never put in foleys? Never do an LP? Never place a central line?
Patients with ports generally have complex medical conditions that require frequent IV treatments. The port is there to maintain reliable IV access. The ports not going to always be there, and the patient is stuck with the same veins for the rest of their life. Why further traumatize peripheral veins when they have a port right there? If you clean the access site adequately and get a dressing over it (at my hospital, everything you need is in one kit together) it's not going to get infected. The infection is FAR more likely to come from the hub not being adequately cleaned with alcohol or dirty tubing being connected than from the accessing of it itself.
We rarely use ports in my unit. Even if a patient has a port one one side, they always have a central line on the other. I've maybe accessed an IVAD twice in the last year. But I can still say with confidence that it's an easy procedure. The hardest part is getting the backing off the tegaderm.