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A nursing issue: peripheral venous catheter
TOMÁNKOVÁ NOVÁKOVÁ, Monika
Peripheral venous catheter is used to access the venous system. It is one of the most commonly used invasive procedures in health care facilities. This procedure falls within the competence and daily tasks of nurses. Therefore this type of nursing care is susceptible to risk of proceeding routinely which might result in conscious or unconscious errors. Peripheral venous catheter needs to be introduced into the patient's vein in the following cases: planned parenteral nutrition, infusion or transfusion therapy, application of intravascular medication or contrast media, rehydration, blood sampling (which can be performed immediately after introducing the peripheral venous catheter and before administrating medication) and also during an emergency care for critically ill (such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Nurses should be as knowledgeable as possible about this issue so that the peripheral venous catheter can be introduced well and fulfil its purpose. It is important to ensure that nurses obtain all the necessary information about their patients before inserting the catheter and that they are able to properly inform the patients about the procedure and to communicate with them. Next, nurses should be familiar with the correct procedure for inserting catheters, they should be informed about possible contraindications and know how to choose the correct type of catheter as well as where to place it. Furthermore, nurses should care for this vascular access correctly and provide the patient with enough information about taking care of the catheter after the procedure. Finally, nurses should be aware of their own potential errors and also of possible complications. Therefore they should employ aseptic technique so that they can eliminate nosocomial infections. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part focuses on the history of peripheral venous catheters and their types, indications and contraindications, necessary equipment, nursing care, complications, etc. The empirical part consists of a research. The aim of the thesis was to map the use of peripheral venous catheters in hospitals as well as to identify factors that may lead to problems among the patients with peripheral venous catheters. Four research questions were assigned to these aims. 1. What is the procedure prior to inserting a peripheral venous catheter? 2. What are the standards of caring for patients with an inserted peripheral venous catheter? 3. In which steps of caring for peripheral venous catheters do the nurses lack knowledge? What equipment do the nurses prepare in order to insert a peripheral venous catheter? The Bachelor's thesis was conducted using a qualitative research survey. The methods of collecting data included semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The research was carried out only in one hospital ward and it was anonymous. First, the data were collected by means of a semi-structured interview. The nurses were asked 14 questions (see Appendix 8). During this interview, several more subquestions were added. The results of the interviews were then grouped into several categories for the sake of clarity. The second method of collecting data was participant observation. The observed facts were recorded into an observation sheet (see Appendix 9). The same nurses who were interviewed were also observed. This Bachelor's thesis has been written in order to provide a basic overview of the peripheral venous catheters. It could be used as an information source for more experienced as well as novice nurses. The practical output of this Bachelor's thesis is a nursing care standard concerning peripheral venous catheters. This standard was missing in the hospital ward and could help the nurses to take care of these vascular accesses, to proceed correctly and eliminate possible errors (see Appendix10).
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