BJN AWARD RUNNER UP.

Abstract

career in surgery, day surgery and accident and emergency (A&E) nursing. It was during my time as an A&E sister that my love of IPC was fully ignited by undertaking the role of link IPC practioner for the unit. Since May 2006, I have been a senior IPC nurse in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust and have always had a particular passion for how staff insert and care for vascular devices that have been inserted in vulnerable patients. My vision was to have a standard package for insertion and care of peripheral intravenous access to ensure that patients had the best care from insertion, maintenance of care and removal of lines to reduce the risk of acquiring catheter-related infections. To achieve this involved a phased approach to standardise products, review both nurse and medical staff education to ensure that staff were aware of products available, and look at care expectations to sustain good practice. This was achieved through benchmarking audits of all aspects of peripheral access and care, which informed us about the products within the trust e.g. six different dressings, three different companies providing peripheral cannulas and a variety of skin disinfectants. In addition, the number of peripheral line associated blood stream infections for the previous year was reviewed to provide another benchmark. Once the benchmarking had been completed, a three-stage implementation programme commenced following trialing of different products. Stage one was the standardisation of peripheral line dressings from one company, stage two was the introduction of 2% chlorhexidine/70% alcohol skin disinfectant and stage three was the introduction of a bespoke trust peripheral cannulation pack. Since the introduction of these measures, blood stream infections associated with peripheral lines have reduced by 73%, reducing costs to the trust both in monetary terms and in reduced length of stay, and ensuring that patients are receiving safer, evidence-based care. Aseptic non-touch technique is now mandatory for all healthcare staff who insert, care for or remove cannulas and is part of the induction programme for all new starters. My vision for the future is that all acute trusts have a vascular access team to improve patients’ outcomes. I was honoured to be nominated for a BJN award and delighted to receive second place. BJN