Peripheral intravenous catheters: improving patient safety with the use of a care bundle
Abstract
A care bundle is a set of evidence-based interventions that when performed together can significantly improve a patient's outcome (McCarron, 2011). Peripheral intravenous catheters (PVC) are widely used in veterinary hospitals for the treatment of patients; yet there is little information on their management and documentation in general practice. PVCs are used to administer medication directly into the venous system for rapid distribution to the whole body, and also to deliver fluid therapy and nutritional support to the patient. Although intravenous catheter insertion is common practice, it alters the host's defences against infection, which increases the risk of local infection or bacteraemia with more serious complications such as septicaemia (Zias, 2010). This causes concern for patient safety.
Studies have been carried out in human medicine to see if introducing interventions such as removing unnecessary catheters (Pronovost et al, 2006) and staff education (Peredo et al, 2010) can reduce the number of catheter-related infections and complications. In human medicine catheter-related bloodstream infections have been successfully reduced by using a central venous catheter care bundle (Kim et al, 2011).
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