Infection Prevention and Control Cannula Pack

Why Use a Cannula Pack As a result of improving practices in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) it has been identified that intravenous cannulation has an associated risk of causing a blood stream bacteraemia when aseptic non touch technique is not fully adhered to. Due to the nature of pre-hospital care it may not always be appropriate to use this technique, but the introduction of such a pack will reduce the risk to patients, staff and the Trust when it is suitable to be used.

Why Use a Cannula Pack Use of the cannula pack was introduced within the Trust in 2014 due to the recognised requirement under the Health and Social Care Act 2010 for IPC practices to be consistently but proportionately applied in all sectors thus ensuring that numbers of infections may be reduced to benefit service users.

Prior and Post Cannula Pack Introduction

Intravenous cannulation The circumstances in which an intravenous cannula should be used are set out in the JRCALC Clinical Practice Guidelines. The member of staff should insert the cannula using the ANTT procedure whenever it is physically possible to do so.

Contents of the Pack 1 Drape towel 45x35cm 1 Vene K disposable tourniquet silicone 2 Dressing Tegaderm 7x8.5cm 1 ChloraPrep® Frepp 1,5ml 5 Swabs 10 x 10cm, 4 ply, non woven 1 Aseptically inserted sticker 1 Emergency inserted sticker 1 octopus 2 ways+ 2 vadsites 2 Clinell 2% chlorhexidine wipe (for decontaminating ports) 1 10ml prefilled syringe with NaCl 0.9% *

How to use the Cannula Pack Make an aseptic clean field – using the drape towel (blue sheet) in the cannula dressing pack. Apply the tourniquet (single use and disposable). Palpate the vein. Decontaminate your hands. Clean the site for venepuncture using CholraPrep (2% chlorhexidine gluconate in 70% isopropyl alcohol) – do not re-palpate the vein. Leave skin to dry for 30 seconds.

Choose a cannula, open the pack and place the cannula aseptically in the aseptic clean field. Decontaminate your hands and don gloves. Insert the cannula according to guidelines, ensuring that the insertion site is not touched. If insertion attempt is not successful, the same cannula should not be used again. Use a sterile, semi-permeable, transparent dressing to secure the cannula. Record the date and time of insertion on the label. Place the label on the dressing at the furthest point from the insertion site.

Attach either Aseptically or Emergency Inserted label. Dispose of any items used in the appropriate waste receptacles. Remove gloves and decontaminate hands. Record the date and time of insertion on the PCR / EPCR. If any of the above steps cannot be performed due to circumstances beyond your control e.g. life threatening or environmental conditions, the inserted device must be classified as EMERGENCY INSERTED and this must be recorded on the Patient Clinical Record / EPCR and the Emergency Inserted label applied to the dressing.   When handing the patient over to the receiving hospital the staff must be verbally advised, so that the cannula can be replaced aseptically as soon as it is possible to do so.

Only open a cannula pack when you are intending to perform a cannulation procedure; Do Not open packs and remove items of equipment to store in your personal kit for use at a later date as this will increase the risk of contaminated equipment being used on a patient: