President’S Message

Abstract

2022…WOW! We have come so far and progressed, or should we say regressed? We were finally able to have an in-person face to face conference (664) with virtual attendance (366) too!!! (Excitement and shouts of joy!!!). We started the conference with a great poem written by my nephew Mikey Stevens, (a vascular need patient): To live is to grow, to grow is to learn.As we grow and learn, we must lead so they know.AVA will grow as members align; together we will say “We can save that line!”We raise our flag on the mountain of knowledge, wage war against naivety so they must acknowledge.Needle or catheter, our practice matters.Preserve the vein, is the name of the game.Some growth to improve and ignorance to be pruned.Our research the shears to stop the assume.AVA’s mission is the vessel that maintains our course.The knowledge we gain, is meant to align.Till we all yell together “We can save that line!”This reminds us, as we progress through our careers, we need to make sure we are addressing the problems AND saving the line/Vein. We all read research, but do we all do our diligence to research what we could do better? The AVA Foundation has implemented a program to enable all clinicians to bring their research to JAVA. If you didn’t reply to the foundations survey, it is not too late to reach out to them to apply for a mentor to guide you through the process to become an author of a journal article in JAVA.Although COVID has changed many of our practices is has also provided focus on some of our long-term issues. AVA has partnered with BBraun to develop a comprehensive eLearning module that provides a certification. This curriculum was developed to elevate the knowledge and skill of learners and is offered FREE to universities and colleges. This means your alma mater could now improve vascular access with your help of instituting the PIV curriculum into their current education.Intravascular Quarterly and JAVA continue to offer our members articles of interest, as well as peer-reviewed articles related to care and management of our patients. CE options are offered in the journal and on our website through webinars with additional learning with our podcast.ACE by AVA was offered at our Scientific Meeting Pre-Conference session, to provide education on Ultrasound Guided Peripheral Intravenous Insertions. This is an eLearning module offered to hospitals and individuals to develop a foundation of knowledge and validation of competency to support the placement of ultrasound-guided PIVs.The Resource Guide that was released in 2021 was updated this year and released during our AVASM 2022, along with our PediNeoSIG who published a digital resource for Insertion, Care and Maintenance of PICCs for our youngest of patients.The Education Department is diligently working on our Clinical Practice Guidelines. These comprehensive guidelines will include Patient Assessment and Device Selection, Pre-insertion, Insertion, Complications Management, Device Maintenance and Removal and Administrative Considerations.As we move to the end of a year and beginning of a new year, we have the opportunity to grow, expand, and mentor. Let’s take the knowledge we learned from the year and years passed, to educate our new nurses and inspire all to Save That Line!!!