On the Move with the IV Team
As specially trained nurses providing around-the-clock coverage placing IV catheters in patients of all kinds, our IV team needs to have a knack for gaining a rapport with different patients in a short period of time in order to be successful at our jobs. Let’s face it—no patient likes needles. Patients are often not happy to see me when I appear at their bedside. It becomes my responsibility to instantly put the patient at ease, despite their knowledge that I am there to place an IV. Needless to say, this is a hard sell.
Modern technology helps our team significantly. Should other nurses on the pods need to reach us with an urgent patient need, we are readily available with text pagers. Text paging better prepares us for what we will encounter—GI bleeding, chest pain, PCA, etc.—before we arrive at the patient’s door.
As we each tend to nearly 100 patients per shift, we never lose sight that each IV we place or change is an invasive procedure and a potential source of infection. With much practice, moving quickly from obtaining a list of patients with IVs on each pod, to meeting the patient, to communicating with the nurse, to assessing the patient’s situation and then to placing an IV line becomes a fluid process over time.
When I precept nurses new to our team, it is essential to emphasize the meticulous details and process over the 8-12 week orientation to IV placement. Some of the most critical steps, besides the IV placement, include recognizing patients’ allergies, noting IV placement restrictions, assessing signs of vein irritation, checking for IV site discomfort, confirming drug incompatibilities to minimize the number of IVs and amount of vein irritation, evaluating IV access for future hospital visits and watching for possible IV-related complications.
We feel an especially strong sense of responsibility to our patient’s needs. Even when a patient with a complex case is transferred out of our care, we strive to make the transition as seamless as possible for the patient. This is certainly the case when my long-term patients are discharged.
I recall one patient to whom I had provided IV care for over several admissions. He was very anxious about the possibility that his bowling game would be affected by our using his right arm for IV placements. He was being discharged to home for several weeks of continued IV therapy.
As it turned out, his home care nurse was a former BWH IV nurse. Once I learned that, I instantly felt at ease.
—Catherine Hardiman, RN, CRNI
IV Nurse Preceptor