My institution is looking for cost effective ways to teach new Staff RN's how to access ports? Our access needles have safety mechanisms that render the needle unusable after removal. So every new Staff RN must use a new access needle for their competency test. We were wondering what other institutions were doing?
It is still possible to obtain the butterfly Huber needle system, so they cost around $8 each and can be reused. When I was teaching I managed to break off the safety mechanism and render it useless for my teaching needle but do it before it is triggered., I haven't used one of them for many a year so don't know the latest fashion, but still should be able to do.
And the reason for using a flat head to a Huber, is that the port is right under the seat belt when driving [ opp side to the USA] and if in an accident these safety bits stick far too way out meaning that its possible and has happened to catch and break off leaving the person with a bit of Huber needle poking out]