Insert and secure

Standard precautions are steps your clinician will use to help reduce your risk of infection when they are providing care for you, including when they insert your PIVC. This will include thoroughly cleaning their hands immediately before they touch you and your PIVC, using gloves, and other techniques to prevent germs from getting onto your PIVC and into your bloodstream.

If there is any hair at the insertion site, your clinician will remove it with clippers. They will not shave the hair with a razor as this increases the risk of infection. An antiseptic liquid will be used to clean your skin before your PIVC is inserted, and a dressing will be applied after insertion to help the PIVC stay in place and prevent infection. This is why it is important to tell your clinician about any allergies you have, including allergies to any tapes, so the antiseptics and dressings that are used are best for you.

Insert and secure a PIVC using standard precautions, including aseptic technique.

Carry out a risk assessment to identify the standard precautions required to safely perform the procedure, including performing hand hygiene consistent with the ‘5 Moments for Hand Hygiene’, and adhering to aseptic technique.

If there is hair at the insertion site, remove with clippers as shaving with a razor increases the risk of infection. Decontaminate the skin with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate in 70% alcohol unless contraindicated, allowing for appropriate cleaning and drying time.

Use a sterile, transparent, semipermeable dressing to secure the PIVC, and consider patient characteristics such as allergies to tapes. Secure the dressing, taking care not to contaminate the insertion site. Ensure that the dressing remains intact for the duration of the insertion to prevent complications such as unintended dislodgement.

Ensure that PIVCs are labelled in accordance with the National Standard for User-applied Labelling of Injectable Medicines, Fluids and Lines (the Labelling Standard). Specifically, catheters must be identified when there is a risk of wrong route of administration (for example, where the patient entry port is distant from the administration site).

Ensure that policies and procedures are in place that describe the requirements for the safe insertion and securement of PIVCs. Ensure that policies and procedures outline:

• Who can insert a PIVC
• What is needed to insert and secure a PIVC, including skin preparation, equipment and dressings
• What infection control measures to use
• How to dispose of the equipment used to insert and secure the PIVC.

Ensure that systems are in place to enable clinicians to complete training in standard precautions, including the '5 Moments for Hand Hygiene' and aseptic technique. Ensure compliance with the Labelling Standard.