Survey on Safety Cannula/Catheter Protector Complications Among Malaysian Health-Care Workers

Intravenous infusion is a widespread procedure used as medical fluid administration to the patient, especially when medication through oral means is unachievable. The infusion process involves a vascular access device as the medium to channel medication fluid to the patient’s body. A suitable vascular access device is used depending on the patient’s condition and the type of infusion needed. The most common type of vascular access device is the short Peripheral Intravenous Cannula/Catheter (PIVC) device. One of the major issues of PIVC is that the rate of failure and dislodgement are staggeringly high due to poor securement of the device/dressing used, even to this day. The aim of this paper is to conduct a survey study to further understand the causes of PIVC complications. The survey was conducted among more than 100 Malaysian medical practitioners and health workers. The results are discussed regarding the parts involved in dislodgement, causes of dislodgement for pediatric and adult patients and suggestions of parts needing improvement. This study has proven that the frequency of PIVC dislodgement for adult patients is higher, and tape was proven as one of the causes of problems for patients with skin issues, and securement needs to be adequate to compensate for strong force manipulation on PIVCs.