Does ultrasound-guided peripheral cannulation training for junior doctors reduce missed intravenous antibiotics doses? A teaching programme for foundation doctors in an acute medical unit

摘要

It is well established that delays in antibiotics increase morbidityand mortality in sepsis. 1 Difficult peripheral access is one ofseveral factors that cause delays in initiating treatment. 2 Smallstudies have shown that ultrasound (US) guidance can aid timelyinsertion of difficult cannulas and that junior doctors are able toretain and incorporate this new skill into their practice. 3,4 Our studyassessed if the introduction of a training programme in US-guidedperipheral cannulation would reduce rates of missed intravenous(IV) antibiotics due to lack of venous access. This was pilotedwithin the acute medical unit (AMU) of a district general hospital. Our hospital charity kindly awarded the AMU a grant for an USmachine following our proposal for this intervention. We introduceddrop-in sessions on the AMU in addition to integration within thefoundation training programme at our hospital. This was to ensureall foundation doctors in the AMU received the training. We createdsimulated peripheral vein models from agar-agar and twistingballoons. The teaching sessions were composed of supervisedpractical training in US-guided access on these simulated models. Our outcome measure consisted of missed antibiotic .