Volume 2 Issue 2

Welcome to the latest issue of Vascular Access. This is my inaugural issue as Editor-in-Chief, and I look forward to working with AVAS board members and the journal editorial team to build the journal into something really special and useful for readers. I would like to thank our previous Editor-in-Chief, Monica Schoch, who has stepped aside to work on her PhD. Monica will continue to be on the editorial board. I wish you well in your studies, Monica. 

This edition of the journal has a peripheral intravenous catheter focus. Although PIVCs are often regarded with a grain of salt and seen as the benign little brother of the more important central vascular access devices, we need to remember that 60%–80% of patients will need at least one PIVC during their hospital stay (1), and PIVCs are not without risks, including dislodgement, blockage,  infiltration, extravasation, and phlebitis (2). All of which are painful and frustrating for the patient, time-consuming for everyone involved, and can lead to further complications, treatment delays, and prolonged length of hospital stay. So it’s important to provide the best care we can for these humble devices. 

The journal is published biannually in April and October. In this issue, we have one original submission and two articles reprinted with permission from our sister publication, the Journal of Vascular Access. For the journal to flourish, we need your contributions, so please consider submitting an article for the next issue. It doesn’t need to be a large randomised controlled trial or systematic literature review, although they would certainly be welcome. Readers will be interested to hear about how you implemented a quality improvement project in your hospital, devised and delivered a vascular access education program, created a patient experience improvement strategy, and so on. If you would like to review a new book that features vascular access, provide an overview of a conference you recently attended, or write a short opinion piece on an article or guideline you have recently read, that would also be great. If you have recently presented your research at a conference, I encourage you to turn your abstract or poster into an article and publish your work. Sharing your research and ideas is personally satisfying, great for your curriculum vitae, and can help improve patient outcomes. What do you have to lose?

Let’s work together and build this journal!

Author(s)

Gillian Ray-Barruel, RN, BSN, Grad Cert ICU Nursing, BA(Hons), PhD Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR) Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University Page 1

References

1. Alexandrou E, Ray-Barruel G, Carr P, Frost S, Inwood S, Higgins N, Lin F, Alberto L, Mermel L, Rickard CM. A global prevalence study on the use of peripheral intravenous catheters: results of a pilot study in 13 countries. Journal of Hospital Medicine. 2015, 10(8):530-3.   
2. Wallis MC, McGrail MR, Webster J, Marsh N, Gowardman JR, Playford EG, Rickard  CM: Risk factors for peripheral intravenous catheter failure: a multivariate analysis of data from a RCT. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2014, 35(1):63-68.