HolyRomanOne

I have been a nurse for nearly ten years and have never heard of such a thing! My suggestion would be to write a letter to the director of the facility and state the concerns that you have, why you have them, and suggest an appropriate resolution such as "I feel it would be appropriate to provide my grandmother with "x" size because the larger size does not provide adequate protection from wetness and that it places your grandmother at increased risk for skin breakdown. Additionally, tell them straight out that if reasonable measures are not taken within a specified number of days that you will report this to the Department of Health and Human Services and to the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO). I assure you that this will get there attention.

I learned to insert IVs on heart failure patients, so I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it was. I'm happy to say that now I can get blood from a stone. The technique that I have found works best for me is this...once you have accessed the vein and gotten blood back, pull back the needle a bit so that you expose the teflon angio-cath. You don't want to pull out so far that you can't advance the catheter, just enough that the needle no longer protrudes from the end. The blunt catheter is much less likely to puncture the vessel again. Hope this helps.