RE: dressing changes and protocol/procedures for DVT in PICC Arm

[Ward Gina]

We the 2 trained PICC nurses (myself and another nurse), who also work fulltime in other areas in  the hospital, do all the PICC dressing changes.  We know they (floor and ICU nurses )  have done Central line dressing changes in the past, but we also know what they end up looking like and have seen some of them in action.     We just started our PICC program 5 months ago, we wanted to  keep it a smooth as process as possible and keep our complications down to a minimum.  So, we decided we would do all the drssing changes. We did provide a class for all nursing staff on care of and use of the picc.   The nurses are elated and we have had no problems with infections.  We also chose to use the Biopatch dressing to make our dressing changes down to every 7 days after the initial 24 hour change.    We initiate a file on each pt and also a log to keep up with the dressing changes, it has worked well so far.  Of course we do only about 20-30 piccs a month and our average length of stay for our lines is about 14 days.   We have not had to deal with DVTS yet.   Thanks,  Gina From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Helen lazeration Sent: Sat 2/25/2006 3:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: dressing changes and protocol/procedures for DVT in PICC Arm Need some help with two items:     Just need an informal survey on how many facilities have their IV/PICC Teams do the routine dressing changes or if the nursing staff do the changes and how everyone feels about the nursing staff on the floors doing the routine dressing changes.       Also, if there are any facilities out there who have physicians leave a PICC in place with a DVT and anti-coagulate the patient to try and break down the DVT?  If so, do you have a policy/procedure in place for this scenario that you would be willing to share?   Helen Lazeration, CRNI Fairbanks Memorial Hospital Fairbanks, Alaska