Pic Lines.... Dsg. Changes

When I was working med/surg we changed then q 72 hours. But I have no idea what the policy was, to be honest.

We do 24 hours after initial insertion, then every 72 hours. This is in our Med/Surg environment. :wink2: That is floor policy.

When I was working med/surg we changed then q 72 hours. But I have no idea what the policy was, to be honest.

I was thinking Q72 myself.. thought that made sense.. any others out there like to throw in either your or your expertise? :)

In the last 2 facilities I have worked, our PICC dressing changes were 24 hours after insertion, then Q week (if biopatch used)&prn. IF no biopatch used they are Q 3 days and PRN .

Home care: weekly with PRN change if losse/sweating. RN did change, not pts. especially for PICC's inserted by RN team.

CHECK YOUR AGENCIES POLICY. That;s who's standards you will be held to. If no IV policy manual, then they should have reference manual they use as guidelines....

Crips, starting to sound like mgmt geek all the time. Must be all the leagal aspect courses I've taken to protect my license rearing it's head these days.

Want to keep all your licenses safe!

Thanx, Karen, and all above !

Our MD order for this care reads Q Week, (home health) but it still seemed a bit long to me. I thought Q 72 more appropriate. I've not seen this patient yet, so I don't know what kind of dressing or patch is on the site... one of my colleagues is going to visit the patient as I type, and she called me to find out more on this. I'll do just that, Karen.. we do have a HUGE policy/procedures book at the office. Will look that up first thing Monday morning.

Thanx again ! :)

stat lock and biopatch change.

Of course, if they get wet or start to come off, then we change them as needed.

Blee

Plase take the time to READ the P&P manual. All our nurses receive own copy. Think their doing to CD rom next year and place on our computer desktops for field staff to use who are on laptops.

Geez, Karen, our P&P manual is bigger than the CPNE "carjack"... it weighs a TON and THEN some. It's HUGE. No way would we be toting that monster around in the field with us.

But I DO like the idea of putting it on CD Rom for laptops ! BIG thumbs up !

We're still "discussing" the laptops.. the nurse all want them, mgt. is "working on it".. so hopefully we'll get them sooner than later.

Wonder if once the P&P is on CD ROM that I could transfer that to my PDA? I would think so, just like any other info, right? Now THAT I could live with until we get the laptops! :)

My last place of employment we changed 24 hr after insertion, then q week, unless a 4x4 or some type of guaze was under the dressing, then we changed q 24 hr. This was LTC.

Our policy is 24 hrs after insertion, then q 72 hrs after that. of course if the dressing is wet or starting to peel off, we can change sooner. I work in LTC, and have 4 pts with PICC lines.

Wendy