I had an opportunity to review some of our patient satisfaction surveys. It wasn’t surprising to me that many concerns were about the peripheral IV insert. One patient even stated “It was the most painful thing I ever had done”. This comment was very upsetting to our team of Vascular Access Nurses. When we are placing PIV’s, we need to be offering a numbing agent. We have made into policy that we offer all patients a numbing agent. We do this now for our pediatric patients, but what about our adult and geriatric patients? This additional step will aleve the pain associated with insertion of the vascular access device. We are concerned about a pt’s pain when they present to the ED, we assess their pain frequently while in the hospital, but why do we not routinely use a numbing agent? It is a skill that can be easily learned. The stories of “I can’t see or feel the vein after I instill the lidocaine” and “It’s two sticks anyway” no longer are acceptable when inserting devices.
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