Perfecting Your IV Starts—Even With the Most Difficult Veins

No patient ever enjoys getting stuck with a needle. But an experienced, caring approach goes a long way in putting patients at ease for this necessary evil.  To explore ways health care practitioners are making the experience less traumatic for ASC patients, Outpatient Surgery Magazine conducted a “Challenging IV Start” study last month with more than 138 facility leaders. The insightful results, which are published in the December issue show new products and techniques in recent years have gone a long way in improving the art of the IV. 

Two-thirds of the survey respondents say they use smaller needles and catheters to make insertion easier. Forty-three percent reported using a small wheal of lidocaine 1% to numb the area prior to sticking the patient. While one respondent said she thought this method of easing the pain of needle injection should be a standard of care, another respondent said he received more complaints from patients about the numbing than about the actual IV start.  

Portable vein finders are another technique that 17 percent of the facilities surveyed said they are using to assist with difficult sticks. These specialized devices are typically reserved for more challenging veins sometimes found in obese, diabetic, dark-skinned, elderly, or pediatric patients. 

Read the entire article to learn more about the latest practices surrounding IV starts.