Has anyone looked at a ratio of PICC RNs to PICCs inserted? This may be a different way to ask the question about staffing your PICC team.
I need to compare us to some other hospitals.
How many hospitals? (We are part of a network of hospitals)
How many beds?
How many PICCs inserted annually?
24/7 staffing? # staff?
Hours of operation M-F? # staff?
Weekend staffing? # staff?
I know that this has been asked over and over again, but I haven't seen this done since we have transitioned to this web based list. The last time I tried Escribe it didn't work.
Any and all responses appreciated.
Gwen Irwin
Austin, Texas
I have wondered this too. I feel that my hospital is understaffed and previously posted a brief staffing comment. No one else replied.
We have more than 700 beds. Our staffing and PICC/ PIV placements are as follows. We usually have 24hr coverage with 1 RN doing the "difficult IV placements" on the 7a-7p shift and one RN doing PICC placements 7a-7p. on PMs 7p-7a the sole RN does both. We only have 4 FT RN's on 7a-7p and 1 FT and 1 PT RN for PM coverage; therefore, not every shift is covered 24/7. We average 1500 PIV and 275 PICCs each month.
I too would like to know where this places my hospital for comparison.
WOW! That is impressive to do that much. I would think that you are understaffed, especially if all shifts are covered. We cover over 700 beds (in network of 2 larger and 2 smaller hospitals), have 3 FTEs that only cover M-F 0730-1800. Rare IV starts, primarily PICC insertions. Travel from site to site takes time away from patient care too.
How is it managed when there is no coverage? What happens then?
Thanks for responding.
Gwen Irwin
We are a 400 bed hospital
We place 2000 lines (MST with Ultrasound) a year with 1.3 FTE's. We just opened a .5 FTE PICC position.
We are staffed 8 hours a day / 6 days a week Monday-Saturday.
I have been using the Sherlock since Sept. and love it.
We are a community hospital with a max of 150 beds. We do open heart surgery and are a Level II Verified Trauma Center. We have nine PICC nurses and will place PICCs 24/7. There are usually 2 on from 0600-1500 Monday thru Friday, 1 on at all other times. Six of these nurses are also Resource Nurses - they float all around and help out as needed. They start a lot of IVs as well, but I don't have those numbers. The other three are two House Supervisors and one Clinical Support Coordinator (me) - I do PICCS and Nutrition Support as well as many other things. We place about 50 lines a month. We do about 90%, IR does the other 10%. We use US and MST.
Hope this helps!
Wendy Erickson RN
Eau Claire WI
We have a 450 bed hospital and 3.8 FTE's
PICC nurses cover 07-2330 7 days /week
We have overlapping shifts with 2-3 nurses during the hrs 09-1830 & work
8 hr shifts, and one nurse the other hrs. We place PICC's, do difficult PIV's, many
port accesses, dc and troubleshoot PICCs and other VAD's, administer
vesicant chemo if the pt does not have a central line, & declot central caths.
There is one nurse 2300-0730 who is called a House Float. She starts PIV's
and troubleshoots but does not place PICCs.
After hearing what the rest of you do, I think we are staffed very well.
We do about 105 PICC's/month.
We are trying to figure out a more time-efficient way to place our PICCs.
How are you, who do so many, able to get them done...what is your procedure,
how long do most PICC's take?
T. Nauman RN, CRNI
Any navigational device will help placements. We have used the Navigator for about 6 years now, with any bedside placements, and have a 96% documented success rate. We place anywhere from 130 to 150 PICC's per month. We are a 400 bed level 0ne trauma facility with 5 specialty ICU's. We have three full time, and 2 part time PICC nurses. We work 12 hour shifts 8am to 8pm 7 days a week with 2 nurses on per day through the week, and one on the weekend. We feel that a PICC is NEVER a "stat" procedure, and therefore we have no night shift PICC nurse. We do have several resource nurses for peripheral IV starts on nights, but we do the difficult starts, for the most part, during the day. We are also a consult team. Just because a doc orders a PICC does not mean that is what we will place. We do a full patient assessment, and suggest a VAD for the patient. We then proceed to discuss this with the doc, and set up the placement process for whatever is needed. No "PICC, stick, and run" for us.