Chari Mercado, Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC) at the Acute Haemodialysis Unit (AHU) of Canberra Health Services’ Renal Service, presented a project she led at AHU at the Renal Society of Australasia Conference held at Auckland, New Zealand from 27-29 June 2019.

The project is entitled “Maintaining Patient and Staff Safety during Practice Change”. The project aimed to address the increased incidence of Catheter related blood stream infection (CRBSI). The Renal Service implemented the introduction of the use of needle free CVC connectors for haemodialysis (HD) patients with central venous catheter (CVC) across 9 HD centres. Overall, the project demonstrated that patient and staff safety could be maintained during a practice change. It supported that the use of needle free CVC connectors have reduced the incidence of CRBSI. HD patients and AHU clinical staff felt extremely satisfied with the practice change.

Chari Mercado is the Director of Membership of the Filipino Australian Health Professionals, Inc. group.