re-used IV needle

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi all,

I am wondering about infection/sepsis risk from IV insertions. I always clean the site, avoid palpating after cleaning and if I need to try again I of course get a new catheter. For some reason today when starting an IV on a patient who was a hard stick I inserted, did not get blood return at first and wanted to withdraw the needle a little bit to re-insert at a slightly different angle (with IV still under the skin) but accidentally removed the needle completely and then re-inserted with success. I am now paranoid that by essentially inserting a catheter that had already poked through the skin to cannulate the patient's vein that I could introduce bacteria into the patient's blood stream. I did some research and sepsis from PIVs is pretty rare but still so worried. any expert opinions? I will make sure this never happens again.

Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.
What I think Hherrn is asking is how resticking with the same needle in the same prepped site, seconds apart, is going to introduce more bacteria with the second stick than the original stick?

Unless you removed the needle and then wiped it on the floor before attempting the second stick, what has changed that introduced more bacteria?

Oh...Ok....yes it can because even though it is prepped and you make the poke in the same prepared area the device could have the bacteria from the layers of skin below the surface plus whatever bacteria may be lingering that was not removed with the prep.The risk is still relatively low in arms because the skin is cooler than other sites (such as chest and neck)...there is different resident bacteria and the counts are lower than other area of the body..there are less oil and sweat glands than other areas of the body.

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