Good Vein for IV Insertion

Intravenous Access

How Important an IV Access for Patients and Nurses?

How to Find a Good Peripheral Vein for IV Insertion and Blood Works

Hello everybody! I hope everybody are having a good day. Are you one of these people who asks the questions above? By any chance, did you have doubts and wonder how. Maybe questions comes in your head of how nurses do that task. What I am about to share here is my own personal technique and experiences. Nursing skills that I learnt and developed in my years of nursing career. These skills and assessment are effective and simple.

We all know that nurses are the last advocate and defense layer of patients. Nurses try to do excellent bedside care most of the time. However, there were moments that nurses feel like they are failing their clients. One of the most common frustrations in the bedside care is finding a good vein to insert intravenous access or for short known as IV access..

What is Intravenous Access?

Intravenous or IV access is a direct access created by placing and inserting cannula inside a superficial vein. It creates an open and direct tap to patients vein. It prevents the patients from being poke by needles multiple times and allows blood works and sample collections, administration of blood products, medications, and IV fluids.

Needles maybe small but many people are scared of it. Am I correct? Even people who works in a medical field gets nervous seeing a needle. Perhaps a human instinct and being afraid of pain. Seeing a needle makes your mind anticipate pain resulting to fear. Also, the reality is – not everyone can insert IV access one time. There are occasions that patients being poked multiple times because of their medical conditions. Patients who have cancers, dehydrated, kidney failure, and more are some of the challenging people to placed an intravenous access. It is known as “difficult stick” for nurses.

For you, or a nurse to insert and established a good peripheral IV access, you need to first identify a good vein. Using a device called vein finder can help in illuminating good veins https://amzn.to/3RDGgSM. Peripheral is a medical term referring to patient’s extremities such as arms and legs. It is my practice to start placement away from the patient’s center body. For adult, I looked for veins in the back of both hand and slowly move into upper directions. If I do not find anything in the upper extremities, I start looking in the lower extremities. However, placing cannula in lower extremities are not ideal because it affects the ability of the patient to ambulate.

For infants and neonate, antecubital area and lower extremities are good placement area. In some difficult stick cases, veins are visible in the scalp, under arm axillary, and abdomen. For blood works collection, the heel of the foot is always the first choice. It is my practice to apply warm packs for few minutes to the area I identified as good vein before puncturing the site. The warm pack dilates the vein and promotes blood circulation better from what I observed.

Five Major Characteristics of a Good Vein for IV Placements:

1. Straight

2. Big and Embossed

3. Away from joints or bendable body parts.

4. Non-movable vein (If no other choices, movable big veins are usable but requires good control of the vein when inserting the angiocath or IV cannula.

5. For dark skinned patients, feel the vein for a good pulsation. Possible “blind shot” insertion.

The term “blind shot” insertion means the nurse placing a needle to a vein that he or she cannot see but can feel. This is a situation that needs a nurse who are seasoned and have strong assessment skills. The patient’s pulse guides the trajectory of the needle. In order for the nurses to save the lives of these patients- all possible and safe way of finding a vein is a must. Again, using a device known as vein finder can help to illuminate good veins https://amzn.to/3RDGgSM. The above vein characteristics are vital to successfully insert an IV cannula in a single attempt. Practice, patience and confidence will help you develop your nursing skills eventually.

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I hope that these tips will help you to render a good quality of care to your patients. Good luck and more power in your nursing skills.

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