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Hi. Welcome to another episode of RN Nursing Procedures.
My name is Susan Turner and I'm the Lead Instructor for the third year of the
RN program at Gavilan College.
Today's episode is a demonstration of how to change the caps
on a central line. There may be more than one
depending on how many ports there are. A central line cap needs to be changed
every seven days when the central line dressing is changed or
any time it's leaking or has a some other type of problem.
Strict adherence to these techniques
are necessary in order to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infections.
Now let's watch Carlene as she shows us how this is done.
So changing the cap on a central line,
whether it's a PICC line or a central line, we do that right after the dressing
change of a central line.
The cap change will depend on how many lumen are on the central line itself.
With a double lumen you need two cap changes.
If it's a triple, you need three cap changes.
Prepare your equipment by grabbing
the caps that you need, saline flushes
and alcohol swabs.
Once at the bedside, be sure to prime
your caps with the saline flushes,
allowing them to be filled with solution and having no air in them.
Keep them sterile within the packaging until you're ready to change
the caps on the patient.
Once you're finished priming those caps,
take your alcohol,
clean the hub of the line for at least 15 seconds with a vigorous motion.
While your cleaning it, remove the old cap and attach the new cap.
Once the cap is affixed on the hub,
drawback for blood return.
If blood return is present, flush is indicated by protocol at the facility.
Once this is completed, affix the green sterile cap.
You'll repeat this procedure for each cap change.
Thank you for joining us.
We hope you found the information useful on the cap change.
Please join us next time.