Bayshore’s Infusion Therapy and Vascular Access Program

Did you know that Home & Community Intravenous (IV) Management is becoming one of the top reasons patients are referred to Bayshore? In fact, in 2020/21 Bayshore HealthCare administered over 25,000 infusions in our clinics and over 30,000 home-based intravenous infusions and injection services across Canada. In some areas, the patient demand for vascular access and infusion therapy is greater than the availability of nurses who have advanced IV competencies. Therefore, in collaboration with local home care branches, we extended and piloted Bayshore’s Infusion Therapy and Vascular Access Program (IVAP).

Why Home & Community IV Care?
The complexity of vascular access and infusion therapy care requires nurses to have advanced education that is not provided in their undergrad curriculum. Most people want to receive care in the comfort of their own home and the benefits of home IV therapy are well-documented. Some of these benefits include cost savings, improved patient experience and satisfaction, and safe administration with advanced clinical knowledge, skills, and competencies.

What is Bayshore’s IVAP Program?
Bayshore’s IVAP Program establishes the regulated health profession competencies, key performance indicators, and clinical expectations for the delivery of high-quality, safe, and evidence-based vascular access and infusion therapy. It provides advanced learning for nurses on the fundamentals required to provide care with vascular devices and provides them with the advanced knowledge, skill, and judgment required to practice IVAP skills safely and competently. The program can be broken down into three parts.

Part 1: The Infusion Nurses Society Fundamentals of Infusion Therapy (INS-FIT) eLearning series. INS develops global Gold-Standard Best-Practice Guidelines regarding vascular access and infusion therapies. INS is fully endorsed by the Canadian Vascular Access Association (CVAA), the premier authority regarding vascular access and infusion therapies here in Canada.

Part 2: Lab simulation/hands-on skills training and return demonstration; knowledge translation quiz and validation of competency.

Part 3: Nursing preceptorship and ongoing learning and professional development.

By implementing a standardized, evidence-informed approach to IV care, the program can create a learning environment that gives precedence to an expanded scope of practice, person-centred care plans, and positive health outcomes.

Our collaborative approach:
Our national clinical team collaborated with Bayshore Home Care Solutions branches in Ontario, including Niagara, Ottawa, Cornwall, and Pembroke. In total there were 42 nurses who participated in the pilot.

Implications to clinical practice
The pilot sites provided a very positive review of the program and demonstrated an increased level of competence upon completion, which in turn has increased the nurses’ scope of practice and confidence in providing vascular access and infusion.

• 95% of nurses were very satisfied/satisfied with the program structure
• 94% of nurses felt the skills day reinforced the INS-FIT learning modules
• 100% of nurses would recommend Bayshore’s IVAP Program to other nurses

Here’s what our nurses are saying:
“This was the most comprehensive infusion therapy training I have received in my career.”
“I have been a nurse for many years and this was a good refresher for some of the areas that I have not been using more recently.”
‘Very helpful to get hands-on teaching from advanced practitioners. Improved my daily IV practice.”

What’s next?
All new nurse hires to the Bayshore Home Care Solutions division will be receiving this training if they do not have advanced IV competencies. For more information, please contact CQresponseteam@bayshore.ca