Nurses launch petition to place vascular access specialists in every hospital across America

A coalition of nurses and the Association for Vascular Access have launched a drive to gather 100,000 signatures of the public and medical professionals to support a safety initiative by placing vascular access specialists in every hospital across America.

Vascular access specialists assess and place intravenous catheters. They work with other clinicians to place the right device for each patient, taking into consideration factors like health history, medication, and how long the device will be used. The goal is one patient, one device. Their knowledge and assessment skills are also applied to care, maintenance, and troubleshooting the devices to avoid complications.

According to a news release, the petition will be presented to Washington legislators at the 2019 American Nurses Association Hill Day on June 20 as part of a focus on nurse-to-patient ratios. Corporate supporters of the petition include Nexus Medical, PICC Excellence, Parker Laboratories, Vygon and Entrotech Life Sciences.

“Vascular access specialists make a crucial contribution to maintaining those staffing ratios by allowing highly skilled bedside nurses to focus on patient care instead of being called away to assist with intravenous (IV) access,” said Connie Girgenti, RN and co-organizer of the petition drive in a statement. “Americans for Vascular Access Specialists in Every Hospital is a public call to action to improve health outcomes for millions of patients.”

Every day, more than 590,000 patients are hospitalized and 98 percent of them will need a vascular access device. Most of these devices are peripheral intravenous (PIV) catheters, which cost $28 to $35 per attempt to place.

PIV failures can be as high as 63 percent, mainly due to unskilled general nurses placing them without ultrasound guidance. Some hospitals have begun to build vascular access teams and improve these outcomes, while others are unaware of the ordeal some patients endure with vascular access.

According to Girgenti, a vascular access specialist, patients commonly receive multiple needlestick attempts - sometimes as many as 10 or more when they go to a hospital for treatment. In addition to pain and suffering, the failed attempts can lead to subsequent complications including bloodstream infections, which impact patient outcomes and increase costs.

“Every patient should only have to endure one stick when they arrive at the hospital and a specially trained inserter can do that more than 95 percent of the time,” she said.

The use of vascular access specialists is supported by the Centers for Disease Control, the ECRI Institute, an independent authority on medical practices and products, and the Infusion Nurses Society.

“We want to drive legislative change that will improve the hospital care received by millions of Americans every day, one stick for all patients from first time mothers to preterm infants to terminal cancer patients,” said Sheri Pieroni, RN and co-organizer of the petition drive.