After noting an increase in patients presenting to the ED who required intravenous access with subsequent difficulty obtaining intravenous access, the ChristianaCare Wilmington Hospital

ChristianaCare Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department

Emergency Department created an ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous  access training course for ED nurses. This training significantly improved the time that intravenous insertion is obtained, leading to an improvement in the time to initiate care and provide disposition planning. With this initiative and addition of USGPIV certified ED nurses, patients’ overall length of stay in the 48-bed ED has improved by 63 minutes since initiation.

The ED team of nurses researching pain modalities deduced that if pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic methods are combined, an improved outcome of pain management and effective pain control may occur. With this knowledge, the nurses developed and implemented a Comfort Cart that can be brought to any patient treatment room. It contains non-pharmacologic pain relief adjuncts such as heating pads, ice packs, stress balls, sleep masks, ear plugs and lavender essential oil aromatherapy. The car also includes distraction tools such as reading materials, adult coloring books and an iPad for guided imagery.