Implementing a Program for Ultrasound-Guided Peripheral Venous Access: Training, Policy and Procedure Development, Protocol Use, Competency, and Skill Tracking.

Peripheral intravenous (IV) access provides a means to administer medications, IV fluids, and blood products and allows for the sampling of blood for analysis. The traditional approach to obtaining peripheral IV access relies on vessel visualization in the arm and/or palpation of the blood vessel beneath the skin. However, the general population is aging, obesity is commonplace, and IV drug abuse is widespread, making peripheral IV access difficult. Use of ultrasound-guided peripheral IV access fills a practice gap in safe patient care between traditional peripheral IV access methods of vein visualization and/or palpation and ultrasound-guided central venous access.