IT’S MORE THAN A LINE … IT’S A PERSON, CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE everything I could regardless of the outcome. As an adult, it gets harder to be the advocate with the big A because now I am the patient and my own caregiver. I must balance the exhaustion of illness with speaking up, alongside taking care of myself to live for tomorrow. It is my healthcare experiences that motivate me to continue to advocate and speak up despite how hard it is in hopes of making another child or adult’s experience better than mine. It has been an honor to join the Association for Vascular Access as a board member and a member of the Beyond Acute Care Special Interest Group (BACSIG). By growing BACSIG, sharing our stories, and initiating change, we hope stories like mine and Jose are anecdotes of the past. Jose’s story was previously described in IQ (“Best Expectations, Worse Outcomes: A Patient and Family Experience with Rural Home Infustion”, November 2020, February 2021, May 2021). Today we have an update on Jose. As an adult who knows the child’s vascular access experience intimately, I admire Jose for his actions. Recently, Jose, who has Muscular Dystrophy, was admitted to a major, world class pediatric medical facility for Partial Ligament removal and insertion of partial plates into both feet. In pre-op, you could hear from a mile away, “STOP!” As the Anesthesiologist was getting ready to access Jose’s peripheral IV, he swiped the injection cap quickly, with one pass, with an alcohol pad,
completely ignoring the process of scrubbing the hub for at least 5-10 seconds. The physician, startled at Jose’s reaction, asked “What gives?!” The entire operating room staff were puzzled and as shocked as the physician. Jose, only a child, had been trained for such an event repeatedly by his home infusion staff. Instead of a text message he had the instructions already ingrained into his head. He knew the correct process and the reasoning behind the action. The physician did not let Jose speak. He looked at his colleagues instead. The colleagues shrugged in confusion. The physician proceeded to scrub the hub again with one pass. Jose was then put to sleep for surgery. Jose received a doll after the surgery. He named the doll “The Bad Doctor.” Jose spoke up, he was his strongest advocate, and of all places, in the operating room. But for Jose, his awareness and knowledge of correct protocol, his armor, was not enough. Actions were done to him quickly and without much acknowledgement of the patient experience. It is time for us to change how we engage about vascular access between providers, patients, and family members. We, as healthcare team members and vascular access specialists, must take ownership of every line at every access point. *We welcome your comments and feedback. If you are interested in joining the Beyond Acute Care Special Interest Group please fill out the volunteer application on the AVA website and reach out to Gwen Coney, chair of BACSIG, at gconeyrn@gmail. com.
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