Nurse fails to wash hands is struck off register

Thank you to Martin Kiernan for highlighting this story in his infection prevention blog. This nurse was struck off by the NMC on six counts of misconduct, which included failing to wear an apron, remove gloves or wash her hands. Hand washing is such a key element of IV care it  Read more

Should NPSA alert include saline flushes

In March 2007 the NPSA issued a patient safety alert that looks at the issue of promoting safer injections. One of the key recommendations from the alert is for the NHS and the independent sector to “Undertake a risk assessment of injectable medicine procedures and products in all clinical areas to identify high risks, and develop an action plan to minimise them”.

Is it now the time to include saline flushes in this risk assessment… I hope so.

Laughter is the new tourniquet

Arun’s blog hints at the idea that laughter dilates blood vessels. Great, another excuse to try and have fun at work

IV books direct from Amazon in association with IVTEAM

We have brought together a wealth of IV books in association with Amazon. Click here to view our book collection.

New saving lives high impact interventions

The Department of Health have revised the care bundles for a number of high impact interventions such as cannulation and central venous catheters. Chlorhexidine 2% gets a number of mentions and the dwell time for peripheral cannulae has been extended to 96 hours - wow!

NMC Standards for medicine management

Just to quickly draw your attention to new standards concerned with medicine management from the NMC. The standard has a few sections concerned with intravenous drug administration. It is of particular interest that the standard recommends that two people (one the registrant) checks IV drugs. The new standard can be viewed here.

Vascular Access Team article

Thank you to the Nursing Times who published my Vascular Access Team article this week. Unfortunately, the article is a lot shorter than I submitted. The Nursing Times editorial staff have trimmed it to a very short article. However, I’m sure you will still find it a useful read. Click the link to view the Vascular Access Team article.

A worthwhile study day at Worthing

Just a quick thank you to the staff at Worthing & Southlands NHS Trust. They welcomed me to a recent study day where I presented an IV talk that looked at topics such as vascular access teams, midlines, IV documentation and patient information leaflets. It was very good to speak with  Read more