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Whew, man am I whipped. I had to blast my butt out of bed this morning
early enough to make it to the There were at least 50 others brave souls there for the breakfast. Josie Stone, RN has pledged her efforts to networks this coming year. She started off with a bang. Lois Davis, RN talked about her experience starting up a new network. Looking back she admits it was work but not as bad as she had feared and she should have done it sooner. Several networks shared what they do, how they get it done and how they the get started in the first place. I foresee a dynamic growth in the number and activities in our networks in the coming year, with Josie’s assistance. I think this was the best network meeting I have ever attended. When the rest of the gang showed up we started out the day with a talk from Dr. Dennis Maki. He talked about Advances in the Prevention of Infection with Long-Term Intravascular Devices. He covered his usual topics of defining a catheter related infection with blood semi-quantitative or quantitative blood cultures. He also talked about the value of ABX locks and the emerging technology with coated catheters and brought up two issues that caused a good bit of discussion throughout the rest of the day. Dr Maki stated he feels that PICC lines are a useful tool but are over utilized in the hospital setting. He presented figures showing that the infection rate of PICCs in hospital patients was higher than tunneled lines when viewed in catheter days; whoops. He went on to show data that needless valve devices were instituted in the institution the infection rate significantly increased. When a split septum device was put back into use the infection rate returned to baseline…another unpopular notion. But wait, we were to hear this again soon. We were next treated to Dr Mauro Pittiruti from
The final general session of the day was Catheter-Related Blood Stream Infections by Dr William Jarvis. An old topic that he managed to breathe new life into and not duplicate Dr Maki except, you guessed it. The introduction of needleless valves in the facility caused a spike in catheter related infections. This spike returned to baseline when the split septum device was reintroduced into the facility. This new data is going to cause some rethinking. It was certainly the topic of discussions the rest of the day. Then my cherished exhibits opened. I have been enjoying talking to and looking at products with all the vendors. But because of it I have not even made it half way through the exhibit hall. I am so seriously behind. Today the posters were also open. I apologize that I did not see any of them yet. I will try to cover that tomorrow. For some strange reason I was talking to two vendors about split septum devices among other things. After lunch we went into the Breakout Sessions and Exhibitor Theaters. I saw many packed rooms and in one case they had to move to a bigger room and it still was SRO. All were excellent presentations by awesome experts. The cool thing is these experts were all AVA members. Just plain working folks like you and me. So if you think you are not good enough to write an article, or speak or do a research project, you are dead wrong. The only thing ya’ll lack is the confidence and maybe a little boot in the behind. If you have a story to tell, let me know. We will help you get it in E-VAN or JAVA. Now I will step off that soap box. The afternoon wrapped up with committee meetings. It should come as no surprise I was in the publications committee meeting. This annual meeting is the only time the committees can actually site down face to face. It is a time to do a lot of problem solving and goal setting. It kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year. I highly encourage (pulling up another soap box) you to join a committee. The board of directors relies heavily the recommendations of the committees. Committees also get a lot of the work done for the organization. The nice thing about a committee is you decide how involved your life will let you be. You can take on as much or as little as you need. And every little bit you can do is appreciated and it does make our organization stronger and better. You can join a committee anytime, it is not too late. Check the AVA web page for lists of committees and contact information. Finally the annual AVA party. Thank you BD medical, it was just
wonderful. It was a We did get a good rain tonight but by the time I went home (after they
turned out the lights and started hauling off the table) it was very nice out.
Again I must say the people of
Nite nite peoples Tony West, RN, CRNI
Healix, Inc. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] SMS: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 214-674-4848 |
