Personal Medical Devices

Here are the steps for flushing your IV line.

Learn when and how to safely change the injection cap on your PICC line.

Watch how and when to safely change and throw away soiled dressings, and how to recognize signs of infection at the insertion site.

Watch these tips to keeping your long-term PICC line infection-free and in good working order, and how to recognize infections and serious health complications.

See how your healthcare provider will quickly and easily remove your PICC line when it is no longer needed.

If you're leaving the hospital with a PICC line, or peripherally inserted central catheter, it is important to know why you have the PICC line what questions to ask of your care provider and your role in maintaining it and avoiding infection. This video helps explains your PICC line care. 

Learn the steps for caring for your IV catheter at home.

Watch this video to learn how your implanted access port will be flushed to clean it on the inside in order to prevent infection and clotting.

Watch this video to learn how to properly care for your implanted port to keep it infection free and in good working order to keep it in use for several weeks to months.

Watch this video to learn how your implanted access port will be properly removed by your healthcare provider.

This video shows how to insert a reusable urinary catheter.

This video shows how to insert a reusable urinary catheter.

Learn what a urinary catheter is and how it works to help empty your bladder when you can't do it on your own.

Learn the proper time and method to empty and clean your drainage bag.

Here are the steps to emptying your urinary catheter bag.

Here are the steps for cleaning your urinary catheter bag.

Watch the steps for changing your urinary catheter bag.

Learn how properly cleaning, emptying and maintaining your urinary catheter is essential to preventing infection. Also, learn the signs of infection to be aware of.

Learn about living a healthy life with your urinary catheter and taking the necessary steps to ensure it stays clean, healthy and infection free.

Learn that your catheter will be removed by your healthcare provider at the appropriate time and how to care for yourself after its removal.

During a hospital stay you may need to have a urinary catheter inserted into your bladder. However, that catheter can be a setup for a urinary-tract infection. Learn more about urinary catheter safety and simple steps you can take to protect yourself or a loved one.

If you are leaving the hospital with a urinary catheter in place, you'll need to learn how to take care of it. This program offers easy instructions on cleaning and caring for your urinary catheter.

Watch this video to learn the proper method for emptying your surgical drain to ensure your recovery from surgery is comfortable and complication free.

Here are the steps showing how to empty your drain after surgery.

Watch this video to learn how to properly change your surgical dressings in order to prevent infection and keep your surgical drain healthy.

Watch this video to learn when to call your doctor if you experience serious side effects while caring for your surgical drain.

Watch this video to understand the factors that go into consideration when your healthcare provider decides when to remove your surgical drain.

Doctors commonly leave this drain within the abdominal cavity after surgery. It helps prevent swelling and reduces the risk for infection. The tube is held in place by a few stitches. It is covered with a bandage. Your doctor will remove the drain when he or she determines you no longer need it.

Here are images showing how to empty your drain after surgery.

After surgery, you may have a temporary tube (drain) placed in the surgical site. This sheet can help you care for the drain as you heal.

Understand the importance of properly changing the dressings covering your CVC, in order to prevent infection.

Learn helpful everyday tips to ensure your central venous catheter stays clean, infection free, and in good working order.

Understand when CVC will be removed, and what you can expect at that time.

Understand the recovery process from a tracheostomy and the steps that will be taken to help you adjust to living with a trach.

Watch this video to learn how to properly clean the reusable inner cannula from your tracheostomy, and the steps to take to avoid infection.

Watch this to learn the steps for cleaning your tracheostomy.

Watch this to learn how to change your tracheostomy.

Learn how to properly care for your tracheostomy stoma to ensure you are breathing comfortably and to prevent infection.

Understand why breathing through a tracheostomy causes your body to produce more mucus and the steps you can take to avoid a mucus build-up. Also, learn what you can do to get rid of a mucus build-up when you do get one.

Watch this to learn the steps to suction your tracheostomy.

Learn steps for living with a tracheostomy to ensure it stays working well and infection free. Also, learn circumstances for which you should call your healthcare provider or 911.

Learn what to expect when it comes time for your tracheostomy to be removed, allowing you to breathe through your nose and mouth again.

If you or a loved one is discharged from a hospital with a tracheostomy, knowing how to care for the stoma and tracheostomy, including tips to avoid infection as well as the signs of infection, is critical to maintaining your health. This video walks through simple steps of tracheotomy care.

Having a tracheostomy can affect your ability to talk and communicate with others. A speech therapist (a person trained to help people who have problems speaking) will work with you to address these problems. If you can't talk, you can learn other ways to express your thoughts and feelings to others.

When you first get your tracheostomy (trach), you may have some trouble eating and swallowing. Most patients are able to return to their usual eating habits after healing from the surgery is complete and swallowing has improved. Here are some things to keep in mind when eating with a trach tube.

"It may take you some time to adjust to your tracheostomy. You may wonder how it will affect your daily life. You will need to make some changes, but you can get used to having a tracheostomy tube (""trach tube""). Your family, friends, and healthcare providers can help."

With a tracheostomy, your healthcare provider makes a small hole (stoma) in your windpipe (trachea) through your neck. A tracheostomy tube (trach tube) is then placed into the stoma. Air goes into and out of your lungs through the tube. Here are answers to some common questions that people often ask about tracheostomy.

A tracheostomy gives you a new pathway for air to go in and out of your lungs. To create this pathway, you need surgery to make a small opening in your neck. A tracheostomy tube is then placed into this opening.

Clean your trach tube and the skin around it at least once a day. Your healthcare provider may advise you to clean it more frequently. Here are reasons to keep your tube clean and instructions to help you do so effectively.

Suctioning keeps your trach tube clear of excess mucus. Suction as instructed by your healthcare provider. Follow these guidelines and any others you're given.

These guidelines can help you care for your trach tube, your stoma, and the skin around the stoma.

If your surgeon has given you a new airway during surgery, it may be in place for only a short time while you heal. Or if your larynx has been removed, you'll continue breathing through this new airway. In either case, your healthcare team will help you adjust.

"You have had surgery to create an opening through your neck and into your trachea (windpipe). A tube (cannula) was inserted into the opening to allow you to breathe. You need to take care of your tracheostomy ("trach") tube, the opening in your neck (stoma), and the skin around the stoma once you leave the hospital. Your healthcare team will teach you how to do this. The guidelines below will also help."

When your healthcare provider is certain that you no longer need a tracheostomy (trach) tube to help you breathe, they will remove the tube from your neck and windpipe (trachea). This procedure is called decannulation.

Watch this clip and learn how to properly care for your AV graft to ensure it is kept infection-free and in good working order.

Watch this to learn the steps for bolus tube feeding.