Forum topic

You will not find such a standard. I would also go so far as to say that a general statement for the frequency of site assessment can not be written in a national standard of practice. Even when you are limiting this just to the peds group, there are still many differences between ages. The frequency of assessing a 1 month old with gastroenteritis receiving hydration fluids and electrolytes is very different from the frequency of assessing a 15 year old receiving only intermittent medications. The peds group has at least 6 different age groups - neonates, infants, toddlers, pre-school, school age, and adolesents. One standard will not fit all ages. There are also numerous variations in infusion therapies, methods of infusion, and types of VADs. You will find guidance in numerous parts of the Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice - #2, # 9, # 13, plus the others on types of VADs and types of infusion therapies. But there is not a specific standard for site and infusion system assessment at XX # of hours. Your facility must take a look at the types of therapies, methods of infusion (gravity, pump, injection, etc), ages, and types of VADs and write what is best for your patient population. It is most common for this interval to be written for this assessment to be done every hour. Your evidence for this policy would be benchmarking against what other facilities are most commonly doing, but there really is no other evidence to use for establishing this time interval. lynn