Abstract

A background in infusion therapy can provide a strong platform from which to launch an entrepreneurial career. In this article, five successful entrepreneurs describe how their clinical backgrounds led them to start their own businesses. Both product and service companies are featured. The individuals discuss their experiences as independent business owners and offer practical advice to healthcare professionals considering starting their own firms.

ABSTRACT

Nursing has prepared you as an RN to own your own business. Even the most routine nursing job is full of life lessons that you can easily apply to the business world.

Just a few of these lessons include the importance of acting quickly and decisively; appreciating that what you focus on is where you get results; applying the nursing process to everything you do; and remembering that as nurses we really can do anything.

You don't need to start from scratch if you have an entrepreneurial idea, Read this article and apply what nursing has taught you to succeed in your new entrepreneurial adventure.

Abstract

A number of different types of dressings are available for the management of vascular access sites. Vapor-permeable dressings differ in relation to their thickness, weight, extensibility, gaseous permeability, and moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR). MVTR may be important in preventing the accumulation of sweat and bacteria on intact skin. The current review examines the available literature and the advantages and disadvantages of some of the dressings in use in clinical practice.

Abstract

Use of needleless intravenous systems are important in preventing injury and exposure to blood-borne pathogens. After insertion, patients were randomized to have either a PASV Protector, CLC2000, or CLAVE device placed on the hub of the indwelling PICC. Rates of occlusion were 11% with the CLAVE device, 4% with the CLC2000 device, and only 1% with the PASV Protector device. With use of the PASV Protector device, occlusion rates dropped significantly.

Abstract

Needleless systems prevent accidental needlesticks by eliminating sharps from the field and yet providing access to the indwelling vascular access device. The advantages and disadvantages of the three groups of needleless systems, blunt cannula devices, luer-activated devices, and pressure activated safety valves, are discussed.

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to describe who should be involved in the vascular access device (VAD) decision-making process, according to patients and caregivers, and to describe if there were differences associated with persons involved in the selection of VADs according to race and gender. Convenience sample included 32 oncology out-patients and 10 caregivers from the southern United States. There were differences by race and sex in decision-making priorities of patients with vascular access devices indwelling; however, these were not statistically significant. Patients, physicians, and oncology nurses were viewed by both patients and caregivers as significant to the decision-making process. In contrast, caregivers were ranked as the least significant by both patients and caregivers. Females chose the physician as the primary decision-maker while males chose the patient as the primary decision-maker.