DRIPP Vascular Access Group Workshop

Date: 19th September 2023

On September 19th DRIPP held a one-day meeting where 45 vascular access and infection prevention healthcare practitioners were hosted at BD's UKI head offices, to discuss best practice in vascular access and how to implement the DRIPP resources into practice to improve patient safety and experience.

The High Impact Interventions document, Complications Guide and Bacteraemia Surveillance Tool were presented by the DRIPP team. Case studies from the four NHS Trusts and one Irish hospital group who had successfully piloted the Bacteraemia Surveillance Tool demonstrated their use of the standardised datasets to monitor both peripheral and central line related bacteraemia. Further phases of the bacteraemia surveillance project will explore the feasibility of developing the tool into an App.

Roundtable discussions on the day explored how the resources could be best implemented with additional suggestions for follow up activities for DRIPP. Further presentations included an insightful personal experience of living with long term intravenous therapies and vascular access devices which was followed by a Quality Improvement workshop.

A thematic analysis of the roundtable discussions on the day identified a number of key points that will inform the next steps of the DRIPP collaborative in sharing the resources in the UK, Ireland and wider and identifying further resources required. A series of webinars detailing each resource is planned for the next months and will be advertised on the DRIPP website.

Please see below some of the general points pulled from the evaluation forms and the round the table groups. Here are some of things you said and what we have done, so far.

A selection of the feedback from the attendees on the day-

“The resources are timely and will be huge benefit to institutions and patients.”

“Great to meet and network with other people from different specialist groups.”

“Patient experience part made me think what is lacking in our practice. We normally focus on our insertions and less focus on how to educate patients…”

“All the speakers added value and provided relevant, useful information.”

“Opportunity to network with other professionals and discuss relevant topics/practices.”

“All sessions delivered to high standards and truly exceptional.”

“Seeing and contributing to future developments and being given a voice”.

“All clinical staff involved in patient care should be encouraged to attend these workshops!”



Read our latest testimonials

‘The Infection Prevention Society is delighted to be a partner in the DRIPP improvement collaborative which is focused on such an important area of infection prevention and control (IPC) practice. Patients with invasive devices are highly vulnerable to healthcare associated infection and there is a wealth of research evidence to show that the way that they are managed significantly affects the risk of infection.  Ensuring that evidence-based practice is applied in the management of invasive devices is therefore fundamental to preventing infection.  DRIPP provides a unique opportunity for clinical experts to work together to develop practical resources that will help clinical staff understand and apply best practice in the care of invasive devices.  This is such an important area of IPC and DRIPP will really make a difference to the prevention of healthcare associated infection.’
Prof. Jennie Wilson, President of the Infection Prevention Society

‘It is great to work with a variety of health care professionals from different societies and associations, who had one common goal; to support the spread and adoption of best practice to reduce device-related infections, thereby improving outcomes for patients with urinary catheters and intravascular devices. At times there was lots of debates about what should go into the documents but after healthy discussions agreements are achieved. It is a privilege to be able to represent the Association of Continence Advice and British Association of Urology Nurses on the group.’
Patricia McDermott, Consultant Clinical Nurse Specialist- Urology