Health care staff awareness of peripheral IV catheters
Abstract:
Background: Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVs) are the most frequently used invasive device in hospitalized patients. These devices are not benign and may put patients at risk of serious complications. However, clinician awareness of their presence is variable and poorly understood.
Methods: We conducted a prospective, multi-center, observational point prevalence study to assess awareness of PIV presence among clinicians caring for hospitalized patients in four hospitals between 05/2018 and 02/2019 located in Michigan, United States of America. We first assessed patients for presence of a PIV then interviewed their providers. Differences in awareness by provider type was assessed via chi-square tests; p< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Analyses were performed on Stata MP v16 (College Station, TX).
Results: A total of 1,385 patients and 4,003 providers were interviewed. Nurses had the greatest awareness of overall PIV presence, 98.6%, while attendings were correct 88.1% of the time. Nurses were more likely to correctly assess PIV presence and exact location than physicians (67.7% vs. < 30% for all others). Awareness of PIV presence did not significantly vary among providers in patients with multiple vascular access device(s), on contact precautions, or those receiving active infusions.
Conclusions: Given the ubiquity of PIVs and known complications, variable awareness of vascular devices is problematic. Methods to increase awareness to ensure appropriate care and removal appear necessary.
Reference:
Adzemovic T, Govindan S, Zheutlin A, Horowitz J, Heath M, Kuhn L, Nabeel M, Kalra SK, Dhillon D, Kaatz S, Swaminathan L, Harba N, Chopra V. Awareness of Peripheral IV Catheters Among Nurses, Physicians, and Trainees: A Prospective Cohort Study. Am J Infect Control. 2024 Jun 4:S0196-6553(24)00532-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2024.05.018. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38844143.