That is exactly what I am saying. The IV team did every IV task,
procedure, assessment, etc on every patient on the med-surg units, OB,
ortho/neuro, etc up to and including charting the fluid intake from
all IV procedures.. We covered the ICUs, peds and ER when called to
help with a difficult stick or to place PICCs. I can not remember our
exact # of FTEs but it was around 24 to 28 for a ~300 bed community
hospital. We were on the cutting edge of everything - placing PICCs in
1981, managing PCAs, epidurals, before they were commonplace.
The structure of this team changed in the late 1990s when all the
teams were cut out or cut back. Fortunately this team was only cut
back and restructured. This hospital still has a team of about 12 to
14 FTEs though. Lynn
At 6:48 PM -0500 2/8/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
are you saying that your IV team did every IV medication? hourly pain meds, as well as all the K supplements, TPN, and everything??? how many nurses were employed on that IV team and what was your total census? i cannot imagine covering a 550 inpatient tertiary care center and handling every IV medication. did you also draw all the bloods and change all the dressings? and manage to get PICCs inserted too? i agree that too many hands in the PICC action increases the risks of infection, but i also know that there is no way my partner and myself can handle everything that you managed to do. we have to keep our head above water just to get the lines inserted. would i love a vascular access team? absolutely! is that a reality in the near future? probably not. it is a long process. my focus right now is education!!!! proper care and management of the lines until the time that a vascular access team is a reality. and if i can educate one nurse at a time, i am happy. we are working to get a team in place, but budget constraints are always an issue. for the time being, we are educating, educating and educating.
Vascular Access Clinician
Albany Medical Center Hospital
New Scotland Ave.
Albany, New York 12208
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RNC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
http://www.hadawayassociates.com
office 770-358-7861
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
http://www.hadawayassociates.com
office 770-358-7861
