Central Line Dressing Change

Changing central line dressings can be a daunting task for nurses who do not work with them regularly.  Our ICU has recently adopted a 2-person dressing change policy because it has been found to decrease central line associated bloodstream infections.  With our new policy, there is one "clean" person and one "sterile" person.  This helps the sterile person to truly stay sterile.  

It seems that many hospitals still have a single nurse perform the dressing change alone. Make sure to use good hand hygiene and sterile technique before and during the dressing change. If you are changing the dressing of line that is not secured with sutures, I always find it a good idea to have a second person to secure the line while you are changing the dressing. 

Here is a great video from EmpoweRN that focuses on how to change a central line dressing: