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elvie52
Pediatric PICC insertions

Our facility is posing a question as to why all of our adult inserters are not also trained in pediatric insertions. I am very uncomfortable with this idea of cross training because pediatrics is a special population. There are not consistent requests from pediatrics for placements, but when there are, the MD's are expecting them STAT and are unhappy when we cannot place them immediatly. With the inconsistent requests, in my opinion, it would not be safe for our adult inserters to be placing pediatric PICCs. Are there any published articles, studies, or standards regarding Pediatric competencies?

VAT RN
I agree that pediatric PICC's

I agree that pediatric PICC's require special training. If you collaborate with the pediatric team (MD, child life, RN's) and seek information on how Pediatric PICC placement varies from adult, you could easily incorporate these placements into your practice. In fact, you could make the argument that your team is precisely who should be doing these because while there are not that many pediatric PICC's you are able to maintain your skill's that apply to all PICC's. It would be very hard to maintain a competency on a task that you do not perform regularly.
Our team collaborates heavily with the pediatric folks. We all have adult critical care backgrounds so we really rely on them to help fill the gaps in knowledge. We (almost) NEVER place PICC's on anyone under 18 without the pediatric team involvement. We are only in charge of the "pokes" and they manage everything else.

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