Radial Versus Femoral Arterial Access for Interventional Procedures: Is There a Preference Among Nursing Care Providers?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine preference for radial or femoral access for visceral arterial interventions among nursing staff responsible for postprocedural care at a single institution. In September 2018, 100 surveys were sent to nurses in the Cardiac and Interventional Radiology Recovery Unit, 48 of whom completed the survey. On a 5-point Likert scale, nurses responded to whether they disagree or agree with 10 encouraging statements regarding radial arterial access. An average of these 10 scores was calculated and an average score >4 for a nurse was considered to be favorable for radial access. Surveyed nurses had an average of 16.7 years of experience with a standard deviation of 10.2 years. The mean value for 7 of 10 statements regarding radial access was >4.5; the mean value was a 4.1 for the statement “radial access requires less nursing care.” Nurses responded most favorably to the statements “radial access is less embarrassing” and “radial access lets patients go home sooner," with 93% (43/47) of nurses either strongly agreeing or agreeing. Among the 48 nurses, 40 nurses had a cumulative average score >4. A chi-square test of radial favorability versus level of experience yielded a chi-square statistic of 1.2 and a p-value of .273 (not significant at p < .05). Nurses tend to prefer radial over femoral access when caring for patients who have undergone interventional radiology procedures, independent of years of experience. Nursing care is not likely to be an impediment in the initiation of a radial access program.