Hi Everyone,
What is the standard practice for locking PIVs in pediatric and neonate patients? I see the Flushing Protocol cards from INS recommend flushing them with NS--1ml every 6hours for NICU patients and 1-3mls every 8 hours for pediatric patients. Is this in the INS standards of Practice--I have not been able to find it. Are there any evidence-based articles supporting saline only for the pediatric/neonate population? If anyone uses a good article for reference, can you please share it? Thank You!
There has been evidence to support the use of saline flushes for pediatric and neonatal PIVs for years. We have done so very successfully although there was some skepticism from the staff initially. Most PIVs used intermittently are used often enough so that a flush after meds is sufficient without additional or more frequent flushes.
There are evidence-based articles that can be found with a quick search...don't have them at my fingertips at the moment. Several studies were done years ago, this is not a recent issue.
Angela Lee, RN, BSN, CRNI
Children's of AL