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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
A
nybody can start an IV in a spongy, lead-pencil vein.
But here comes Ms. Difficult Stick with her small,
rolling, spider veins. You can flick and tap her fragile,
flat veins all you want to coax them out of hiding,
but they're down and they're staying down. She's
dehydrated, elderly and obese. Oh, and she's absolutely terrified of
needles. "Nobody appreciates getting a needle put into their body,"
says Debbie Rich, RN, BSN, MM, the infection control practitioner
at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, Mass. "The IV
stick can be very traumatic."
Years ago, before the advent of products and techniques that
lessen the pain and increase the success rate of your IV starts,
you might have had to postpone or cancel Ms. Difficult Stick's
case. Or make the call to anesthesia for help after a couple of
failed attempts. As Barbara Reiheld, BSC, BC-NE, the outpatient
surgery manager at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna,
Ohio, says, "If you miss 2, you lose
your confidence — and so does the
patient."
Today's good news is that you have
several places to turn for help with
difficult IV starts. For easier inser-
tion, you can use smaller-gauge nee-
dles and catheters, preferred by two-
thirds (66%) of the 138 facility leaders
who took our "Challenging IV Start"
survey last month. A few respondents
favor catheters that have a clear
sheath, which makes it easier to see a
blood return. "And they seem to be a
V E N I P U N C T U R E
A COMMON PROBLEM
Patients at my
facility complain
about painful IV
starts _______ .
frequently 8%
sometimes 41%
rarely 46%
never 4%
SOURCE:
Outpatient Surgery
Magazine Reader Survey,
November 2014, n=138