Molt Earns Bright Idea Award for Excellence in IV Placement
By: Boone County Health Center
Nobody likes getting an IV placed, and it’s even worse if the IV fails during a hospital stay, or in the middle of treatment, and must be replaced.
Patients at Boone County Health Center are at a bit of an advantage on this front.
Nationally, six out of every ten people who get an IV need to have it replaced before treatment is over because the IV failed. At Boone County Health Center, only two out of every ten people need to have an IV replaced.
“It’s nice for our patients who don’t have to undergo the discomfort of having an IV placed a second or third time,” said Boone County Health Center Infection Preventionist Jennifer Molt, BSN, RN
Not only is it nice for patients, but Molt earned a Bright Ideas Award from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology Inc. (APIC), for her role in helping nurses achieve excellence in IV placement at Boone County Health Center.
APIC, who chooses the Bright Ideas Award recipients, works closely with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to prevent and eliminate healthcare-acquired infections throughout Nebraska. The criterion for earning the Bright Ideas Award was to develop a “bright idea” that improved infection control practices.
In order to do this, Molt began by examining Boone County Health Center’s facility statistics on IV placement success and failure, looking for the root cause of each. Then she hosted a unique Nursing Skills Day in November, which gave nurses a chance to hone their IV insertion skills.
While IV insertion is a routine duty nurses often perform, it is also vital to get every step right each time. This is no small task, considering the IV insertion process is over 30 steps long. During the Nursing Skills Day, Molt gave nurses the chance to perform an IV insertion on a “wet arm,” ask questions, and review policies and recommendations for IV insertion.
“With this training, we realized we were not all doing the process the same. It was very beneficial to work closely with our clinical specialist to troubleshoot scenarios and get policy guidance throughout this training,” said Molt.
Molt joined Boone County Health Center in 2011 as a Registered Nurse (RN). She began working as an Infection Preventionist in 2017.