Assessment of Interns? Knowledge Regarding Peripheral Intravenous Cannulation

One of the basic clinical skills that needs to be performed by medical students, interns or nurses is peripheral intravenous cannulation. Considering this, the approach to and understanding of the PIVC procedure is very important and so is the knowledge of possible complications. Methods We included 100 interns of our medical college who underwent training for intravenous cannulation with mannequins. Assessment was done after 10 months of training program with the help of questionnaire about technique and complications associated with iv cannulation. Results Our results revealed that knowledge about iv cannulation technique among our interns was poor, only 57 % interns were aware about hand washing before procedure. However, 80 % interns were aware of complications. Only 18 % interns did proper documentation post procedure. Conclusion Hence they need to undergo proper training programs multiple times under supervision of experts which will help in getting better results. It is suggested that periodic re-training in intern years may instill the right technique for a longer duration.