Vascular Access

The Infection Control Today® vascular access page offers the latest insights from vascular access teams in the field, and covers the latest updates on the methods to keep central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and other infections down to a minimum.

How to Keep Sharps Safety a Cut Above

November 12, 2021

No health care worker is immune from the dangers of handling sharps. Physicians hold a rate just under that of nurses, mostly related to use of scalpels, but are less likely to report these injuries.

Q&A: How COVID-19 Changed Vascular Access Methods

February 24, 2021

Kelly Cawcutt, MD, MS, FACP, FIDSA: “In a perfect world, vascular access teams and infection prevention teams really should be working very tightly together to optimize the practice of putting our vascular access in place.”

Year Zero: How COVID-19 Changed Everything

December 23, 2020

Though tough months lie ahead for infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals, hope remains that at some point in 2021 things will begin to settle down. In the end, it comes down to a simple formula: We win, COVID-19 loses.

Q&A: Teaching Vascular Access Nursing on the Run

October 26, 2020

Maya Gossman, RN: “Our infection preventionist has trained me in the past with the PPE use and the infection prevention measures. And so, I’m passing that on—the knowledge that she’s given me—I’m passing that on at this point to my vascular nurse trainees, my orientees.”

How This Vascular Access Nurse Relies on an Infection Preventionist

September 17, 2020

Although both vascular access and infection prevention have their own focus, our commonality is in ensuring patients get the care they need while minimizing their chances of nosocomial infections.

Q&A: Infection Preventionists, Vascular Access Nurses Line Up

August 10, 2020

Maya Gossman, RN: “I tell people, I put tubes in veins, that’s what I do for a living. Anytime you break the skin and you place a tube into the bloodstream, that’s a huge risk for infection.”

Q&A: IPs, Vascular Access Teams Work Together

July 30, 2020

Nancy Moureau: “Our priority is to minimize infections or potentially even to eliminate them. We want complications to be history. In order to achieve those goals, I see the vascular access specialist or the vascular access teams as being in a partnership with the infection preventionist.”