Among the problems encountered in taking care of patients receiving fluids intravenously are accidents that occur as a result of nurses using needles in the wrong way. If a needle is incorrectly used, the result can be wounds and infections. To correctly take care of patients receiving intravenous fluids, nurses and healthcare personnel must move away from the mindset that “lots of work, not enough staff” and clearly divide duties, adopt good time management and arrange shifts appropriately.

“The main problem is that personnel have a lot of duties and these must be completed in a given timeframe leading to the standard of care often being overlooked. If the level of care is not up to standard, the results are not good. We therefore need to work hard to solve the problem. With this training, we will try to change their mindsets and teach them that the duties must come together with standards.”

“We are conducting training of trainers courses for nurses and healthcare personnel in intravenous cannula insertion and prevention of infection in order to avoid such problems.” Dr. Pattrarat, head of the training team, noted in her speech at the launch of the “Safe Peripheral Intravenous Cannula Insertion for Nurses” held on 17-18 June 2019 at Klang Hospital, Bangkok.

“There are nursing teams handling Peripheral Intravenous Cannula Insertion in 12 public hospitals and 56 private hospitals and Klang Hospital is the first public hospital in Thailand to have a specific Peripheral Intravenous Cannula Insertion team. We must make the team strong so that it can act as a pilot for other hospitals.”

The Improving Occupational Safety for Healthcare Workers in Public Hospitals in Thailand project is a collaboration between B. Braun (Thailand) and GIZ Thailand and supports the development of a training curriculum. The training encompasses 4 activities. The first is the practice of selecting the Intravenous Cannula line and inserting the needle. The second focuses on the concentration of the fluid that will be required. The third one is positioning the cannula – how to take care of the patient after placing the needle and how to close the wound correctly – while the final activity concentrates on setting up a cart for the work and the equipment that must be prepared, including arranging the cart so that the required tools are easily at hand.

In addition, the training also allows participants to divide into groups to brainstorm and identify new projects that will improve the quality of nursing care for patients receiving intravenous fluids and ensure their safety. The project plan of the group will be adjusted according to the recommendations of the training team and prepared for implementation within July 2019.

The “Safe Peripheral Intravenous Cannula Insertion for nurses” training will be held again in July at Nakornping Hospital, Chiang Mai Province and in August at Phra Pinklao Hospital, Bangkok. The final training session will take place in October at Maharaj Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province.

“Ultimately, we are confident that these hospitals will lead in transferring knowledge of safety standards to other hospitals across the country. We plan to produce videos as teaching materials for patients in terms of self-care after they return home. We will also prepare a teaching manual on practices – a “do’s and don’ts” for nurses. This will be the first manual of its kind in Thailand and we hope it will be very useful in the field of public health.” Dr. Pattrarat added.