Nurses from many different practice areas frequently ask this question. The patient has many visible veins on their chest or breast area, so why can't we use those for insertion of a short peripheral I.V. catheter when there are no veins in the upper extremity? Take a close look at the picture, especially how these veins appear.There are many reasons why using these veins is not good practice. First, the nurse must be concerned about WHY those superficial veins of the chest are so visible [...]
