Power Hour Breakout

(L7) Pettit Scholar Breakout Session - Its a Numbers Game

Presenter(s)

• 

  Tricia Kleidon, RN, BSc(Nursing), GradCert.(Pediatrics), MNursSci(NursePrac)

  Nurse Practitioner and Research Fellow
  Queensland Children's Hospital

  3M () : Speaker's Bureau; Angiodynamics () : Grant/Research Support, Speaker's Bureau; Baxter Healthcare () : Grant/Research Support, Other Financial or Material Support, support with in kind supply of product; Carefusion/BD Medical () : Speaker's Bureau; Centurion Medical Products () : Grant/Research Support; COOK Medical () : Speaker's Bureau; CR Bard Medical () : Consultant, Other Financial or Material Support, support workshop with use of equipment; MSA () : Speaker's Bureau; Vygon: Speaker's Bureau (Status: Terminated --- 1//2019)

Vascular access is the cornerstone for clinicians from almost all disciplines and departments to provide reliable access to the vasculature which is often critical to providing necessary and sometimes lifesaving therapy. Unfortunately vascular access is not always reliable and complications are common. Are complications of vascular access devices becoming so common that they are expected, possibly even accepted as inevitable by the bedside clinician.

Vascular access crosses all age groups from neonates to the elderly. Patients that will require lifelong vascular access are in our neonatal and paediatric care for such a short period of their lifetime. Our goal as neonatal and paediatric vascular access specialists should be to assess our patients' need for vascular access, make informed choices about the type of catheter inserted and support the care and maintenance of that device from insertion to removal to minimise complications. Our ultimate challenge as neonatal and paediatric vascular access specialists is to transition patients from our paediatric facility to an adult care facility with intact vasculature. So what are the common complications of vascular access that often result in failure and what can we do as vascular access clinicians to mitigate this?

Learning Objectives:

• Recognise that vascular access is a priority for many patients and may be required for lifelong treatment and life sustaining therapies. Complications should be the exception not the norm.
• Understand risk factors for complication and failure of vascular access device as well as the patient and health service impact associated with complications and failure.
• Discuss new technology and innovative practice to reduce complications associated with vascular access devices, and ultimately optimise vessel health and preservation
• Understand sequelae of failed vascular access and discuss health system quality improvement activities to mitigate these
• Discuss strategies to collect data and benchmark locally, nationally and internationally to identify those at risk of vascular access complications and approaches to minimise risk.