Bridging Theory and Practice in ED PIVC Care: A Smarter Way to Make Better Cannulation Decisions
Posted
on 2 June 2026
 "Bridging Theory and Practice in ED PIVC Care: A Smarter Way to Make Better Cannulation Decisions")
| Study Overview Peripheral IV catheter (PIVC) management in emergency departments often looks “routine,” but outcomes tell a different story: practice varies, failure is common, and patients can experience avoidable pain, delays, and infection risk. This discussion paper tackles a persistent problem in emergency nursing: why evidence doesn’t consistently translate into practice, and what a stronger decision-making framework could look like. The authors bring together two complementary nursing frameworks to strengthen PIVC decision-making in the ED: Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model (noticing, interpreting, responding, reflecting) and Chinn & Kramer’s Ways of Knowing (empirical, ethical, personal, aesthetic, and emancipatory knowing). The goal is to make expert PIVC decision-making more visible, teachable, and consistent. Key Findings
Implications This paper reframes ED PIVC care as advanced clinical judgment, not a basic procedure. It offers a way to strengthen practice by teaching nurses how to combine evidence with reflective thinking, patient-centred reasoning, and real-world constraints. It also highlights how teams can use structured reflection (during and after care) to reduce low-value cannulation, improve consistency, and support safer outcomes. The big takeaway: when clinical judgment is made explicit and taught intentionally, PIVC care becomes more consistent, more evidence-informed, and more patient-centred. Read more: https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608261433137 Authors: Joana Moreira Ferreira Teixeira; Gillian Ray-Barruel; Gisela Mosca Teixeira; Candida Durao; Celeste Bastos; Maria do Rosário Pinto |
