Newborn Urgently Needs IV Access – Nurse Clinicians in Action – 52

Newborn Urgently Needs IV Access

– Clinical Case

This case took place in a hospital where a baby was just born a few hours prior and was diagnosed with respiratory distress (increased work of breathing after birth). The care team declared the infant NPO (short for the Latin phrase “nil per os” that means nothing by mouth) and needed IV access in the form of a peripheral IV (PIV) so they could administer fluids. The facility was also trying to wean the newborn off of supplemental oxygen.

The care team attempted to place a PIV four times but was unsuccessful each time. With the newborn’s condition becoming more emergent, the facility contacted Vascular Wellness for help.

Achieving vascular access in newborns can be particularly challenging due to several factors. Their small and mobile veins make vascular access difficult to achieve and secure. Their veins are also fragile and difficult to visualize without the aid of ultrasound guidance due to layer of subcutaneous fat on newborns. As such, clinicians require additional specialized training and expertise to gain vascular access in challenging and complex cases such as with newborns.

Newborn Urgently Needs IV Access

– Diagnosis and Treatment

The vascular access clinician arrived less than an hour after Vascular Wellness received the order. The advanced nurse clinician was specially trained, credentialed, skill-verified, and experienced in newborns and pediatric cases. The facility knew that because all our clinicians operate in compliance with best practices and industry requirements such as The Joint Commission, this meant Vascular Wellness could provide the patient and facility with the highest likelihood of gaining safe and much needed access. Upon arrival, the clinician quickly set up and assessed the newborn patient for the best options to achieve vascular access and quickly determined this was an extremely challenging case.

The patient’s vessels were deep and small, and they constricted when the needle got close to the vein, making access difficult to obtain. The advanced trained clinician knew that in cases as challenging as this one, access might not be achieved on the first attempt and that it was very important to stay calm and to trust the training and skills. That expertise and focus resulted in successfully gaining vascular access. Within an hour of arriving at the hospital, the Vascular Wellness clinician reached the newborn’s bedside, reviewed the patient chart, assessed the patient and their vasculature, and successfully gained access so the much-needed therapy could begin immediately.

The care team was very grateful for the speed in which the clinician arrived, the advanced skills that the clinician brought, and that they were able to gain access incredibly quickly so critical treatment could begin.

By the Numbers:

10:31 – Hospital contacted Vascular Wellness to order vascular access for a newborn patient.

11:24 – Vascular Wellness pediatric trained clinician arrived at facility.

12:29 – Ultrasound Guided Peripheral IV was placed in the newborn and the Vascular Wellness clinician entered complete documentation and charge capture information directly into the patient’s electronic medical record. 

Newborn Urgently Needs IV Access | Vascular Access Experts

– Key Points

Our Vascular Access Experts collectively have placed hundreds of thousands of lines – including in pediatric patients – and it is this diverse, aggregate experience that is incorporated into our best practices and methodology. Our experience enables us to assess a situation and patient properly, and to achieve safe and clinically appropriate access when other nurses and physicians are unsuccessful.

Placing vascular access devices in pediatric patients requires specialized training, as their anatomy and physiology differ from adult patients. Ultrasound needle visualization is a critical tool and skill in obtaining vascular access in pediatric patients (as well as adults). Inserting needles into a child for vascular access without this technology can lead to unnecessary pain with missed attempts and heightened anxiety for the parent and the child. Our clinicians are trained to manage the differences in pediatric patients and obtain access even in complex situations such as this one. Most mobile vascular access providers, including those owned by investment groups, don’t offer pediatric vascular access as they generally don’t invest in their nurses, or in procedures that are low volume and don’t produce enough of a total profit. We provide comprehensive services to our clients because our clients treat a community of people, and everyone deserves exceptional and high-quality vascular access.

We have a greater than 98% success rate with 0% insertion-related infection rate and a three-hour average response time, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and this includes standard and advanced lines across a diverse set of patients and healthcare settings, as well as challenging cases such as this one and others described in our NCIA case summaries. In addition, our consultative approach with the treating physician allows for a collaborative relationship that results in better patient outcomes, reduced costs, and lives saved.

Nurse Clinicians in Action is a spotlight series highlighting some of the interesting cases that Vascular Wellness clinicians have encountered and participated in treatment. These cases involve challenging situations or intriguing clinical presentations and may involve more than one Vascular Wellness clinician, as our clinicians have the ability to consult each other while in the field, as well as an on-call Clinical Administrator via a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) compliant communication app. In addition, our extensive training program and diverse client base, including Level 1 Trauma Centers, Short Term Acute Care Hospitals, Long Term Acute Care Hospitals, and Skilled Nursing Facilities, provide our clinicians with a wide array of clinical experience and why we believe our clinicians, as a group, are the most experienced and best trained and supported vascular access clinicians.

If you require Vascular Access or want to learn more, speak to the team at Vascular Wellness today.
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Vascular Wellness provides:
(1) Comprehensive vascular access services to North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia; and
(2) Customized vascular access services to Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia; and
(3) Support vascular access services to Ohio and Kentucky.