Lead IV Practitioner
Guys and St Thomas@ NHS Foundation Tust, United Kingdom
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
I am Jane Hodson,Lead IV Practitioner, at Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) in London England. My initial nurse education was at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing graduating in 1974. I spent many exciting years at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Initially in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit then Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU) which, has been the bedrock of my nursing career. Intravenous access devices play a key role in maintaining critically ill patients, so my fascination began. My first official foray into Vascular Access was a post on the IV Team at CHOP followed by a stint in Apheresis. In 1997 I returned to my home country, England. In England I was required to re - do my diploma and have, and still am, undertaking further study at Degree level. After 11 years in PICU I took the opportunity to set up the IV Team at GSTT. Having done it at CHOP I thought surely I can do it here. A year later I set up the Outpatient Antimicrobial Parentral Therapy (OPAT) service. Fourteen years later we still develop our sevice. Based in Infection Control we have gone from a team with no clinical remit to developing a Nurse Led service for PICC insertion. The team have developed their skills in ultrasound guided cannulation, standardised all intravenous device related products, and introduced many further products such as chlorhexidine dressings, glue, longer lenght intravenous catheters, "midlines" and an initial specimen diversionary device, often for the first time in the United Kingdom. We are embarking on a journey to extend the type of intravenous access devices we insert as well as extending our service to three other local hositals in our healthcare system. The future is bright for the Vascular Access team at GSTT.