PICC Dressing Changes

[donnuchi]

What is your usual routine for changing dressings for peripherally inserted central catheters? Do you change on a PRN basis or weekly or some other frequency? Thanks for your information!

[Chaya, ASN, RN]

24 hours after insertion and every seven days after that. We mask and glove but don't gown. We do draw blood from them; you have to be a nurse to do it- the lab isn't allowed to.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

We don't routinely draw off our PICCs because of the high incidence of them clotting off. I could imagine that it would increase the infection rate by entering the line so often, maybe that's another reason. We try to access the central lines as infrequently as possible - just for meds and to change IV tubing. The only time we'll draw off a PICC is during a full septic work-up, and then just a blood culture to compare to the peripheral culture.

Now, Broviacs, boy do I love those. We rarely have babies with them - usually only transports from other units or short-gut babies with long-term TPN needs. We draw off those all the time.

We only glove for our PRN dressing changes. Don't wear anything special when we change tubing and such, just wash our hands and some people wear non-sterile gloves. We really don't have a high infection rate, either.