I am finding that the use of stopcocks vary thoughout a hospital system and even in the same hospital. I am concerned that that we are not changing these properly or shouldn't be using them at all.
I understand that ICU's do use them quite a bit .
One practice that I recently was made aware of was that nurses will connect a syringe to the end of one of the stopcock ports and leave it there until she needs to access it again. Almost using it as a large cap. Does anyone remember an article on studies of the stopcocks and are there truly any standards or guidelines on the use of these stopcocks. I know I read something about prolonged use.
Thanks for any input.
Chris Thomas
Cleveland