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Well for those of you who know me well know that After the obligatory hellos, greetings and recognitions we got the show on the road. The meeting facility is very nice and laid out well with good sound system. They even got the room temperature down … bad choice of words, lets say the got the temperature more compatible with human life instead of frozen yogurt. The SAVE That Line program was introduced. It you are not familiar with this program please review the current issue of E-VAN for an overview of this wonderful program. The goal is provide healthcare providers with the basic knowledge needed to prevent catheter related problems. But that I over simplified. So your homework, if you have not heard about this joint venture project, is to go to E-VAN and begin learning more. Then get the materials and roll out the program at your facility. Our keynote address was from Madge Buus-Frank,
Robert Schelper, MD is a well liked speaker. If you do not know him, he is a pathologist and a strong advocate for sensible vascular access that preserves the vasculature. He started out saying he was going to try to roll all is previous talks into this one. I think he did a good job. A wonderful job of reviewing anatomy, the pathogenesis of thrombosis formation and strategies to prevent this. He ended by reminding us that we make a difference that we do indeed save lives. Jim Lacy, RN & Kathy Kokotis then covered the economics of a PICC team. They illustrated how a team saves real dollars for a hospital. They showed us how to put that on paper and what statistics to track to show this real benefit. Both of these speakers are very knowledgeable in this area and just great orators. I even was told by a few folks this was their favorite program of the day. At lunch I am told a good program was presented on needless access devices. I did not hear about it until after lunch. It seems they put notices in the hotel rooms or something but I am staying up the hill at an unofficial hotel as you may recall. I am sorry I do not recall who offered sponsored the lunch or who spoke but I heard lots of positive remarks about the presentation. Breakout sessions followed lunch. Sometimes I think people think it is skip out sessions but today I didn’t see much skipping out. I heard Tim Duvall’s session on Guidewires, sheath dilators and introducers was SRO (standing room only). Even what may seem like an old and boring topic, Risks and Complications of Peripheral Infusion Therapy, was fresh and interesting when Anne Swanson, MSN, RNC presented it. Over all I heard great comments about the various breakouts. One thing I found interesting and amusing is how humble our speakers tend to be. They referenced other speakers works and say what a great clinician that person is while that person is referencing that person and say what a great clinician they are. This is a great organization where people from all disciplines and skill levels do mix and talk with no airs or egos getting in the way. You hear the most basic questions and the most complex all going on in the same circles. I am proud to be a member of AVA and the vascular access community as a whole. Everyone pat yourselves on the back. The final sessions were a series of concurrent sessions of “meet the expert” formats. There was a wide selection of topics and there was something for everyone. Then one of my highlights was the opening of exhibits. I got stuck at my companies booth for the first little bit but then I got out and started looking around. It seemed like I barely got started and it was over. I hadn’t even stopped to eat. There are some new venders and products this year. I heard that one securement device vendor had stuck all sorts of devices to his body and was walking about with more tubes than three ICU patients. I had been waiting to see the new Veinfinder. It is a completely new technology using UV lights and lots of high tech stuff to project a real time picture of the veins beneath the skin. You actually see what you are sticking. There was this rotor router type device for AV fistula salvage; scary looking. Of course everyone has their favorite type of PIVs and PICCs. I saw a lot of activity over at the Power PICC area. I can not possibly cover every thing there and don’t want to favor any one product or vendor over another so I have kept my comments vague and brief to be fair. I will try to share a little bit more each day as I explore the exhibits. I wrapped up my evening with the list serve party. It was the best party ever. Thank you so much to Paul Blackburn and Bard for their generous sponsorship of the meeting. We had a nice room and ample finger foods. I didn’t take a head count but I would guess we had close to 100 faces pass through. Doug our Vascular webmaster made an appearance and we made a toast to Sue for providing us with Venous. Thank you for everyone that attended. It was great to see old friends and meet some new ones. As a side I learned from Doug that we now have about 1,500 people on his list. Wow; what a knowledge source. One person commented that not only was it a large knowledge base but answers were quick to come. And in closing I will say good night to my love, my life, my wife, Marie. I miss you pretty girl! See ya’ll tomorrow! Tony West, RN, CRNI
Healix, Inc. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] SMS: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 214-674-4848 |
