Your child needs an IV. These are dreaded words. Not only because you want your child to be healthy, but because you know this will be upsetting.

IV placement is a leading cause of pediatric pain. And let’s be honest, getting an IV isn’t pleasant no matter how old you are.

Fortunately, there’s a medical device that makes getting stuck with a needle much easier for everyone — nurses, patients and parents alike.

AccuVein is a vein illumination technology that digitally displays a map of the blood vessels on the surface of the skin using safe infrared light — kind of like a barcode scanner.

The device is good news for nurses, as it helps them locate a good vein and hopefully start an IV on the first try. That makes it good news for patients too, who no longer have to endure multiple needle sticks.

Kids especially benefit from this technology. IVs can be more challenging to perform on children, who have smaller veins and often can’t sit still for the process. It can be even trickier to find veins in children with chronic illnesses who have received a number of different treatments. Research suggests kids remember a painful IV start for up to a year if it's traumatic.

This is why Accuvein is so useful. Even better, the technology can be used in conjunction with the J-Tip Needle-Free Injection System for totally painless IV starts. A needleless device, J-Tip quickly and painlessly delivers numbing medication under the skin before starting an IV so kids can’t feel a thing.

“Any advancement in technology that helps us do our job easier is good for our pediatric patients. AccuVein gives nurses more confidence to locate a vein in a child. When used in conjunction with J-Tip, it’s an improved, pain-free experience for kids,” says Kelly Weaver, BSN, CEN, CPEN, advance pediatric specialty leader in Edward Hospital Emergency Department.

Because of its success in improving patient comfort, more facilities are bringing on the technology. Edward Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department in Naperville has been using AccuVein for about five years. Soon, it will be available at our Immediate Care Clinics and freestanding emergency center in Plainfield.

So next time your child (or you) needs an IV, you can shrug it off because, after all, it’s no biggie.

Tell us about your experiences with getting an IV. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the below comments!

Learn more about children’s services at Edward-Elmhurst Health.

Learn more about pediatric emergency care at Edward-Elmhurst Health.