• Monique M Legemaat, Irene P Jongerden, Roland M F P T van Rens, Marjanne Zielman, and Agnes van den Hoogen.
• Nursing Science, program in Clinical Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Merem Asthma Centre Heideheuvel, Hilversum, The Netherlands. Electronic address: mlegemaat@merem.nl.
• Int J Nurs Stud. 2015 May 1; 52 (5): 1003-10.

ObjectiveTo review the effect of a vascular access team on the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections in infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit.Data SourcesMEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Web-of-Science and the Cochrane Library were searched until December 2013.Study SelectionStudies that evaluated the implementation of a vascular access team, and focused on the incidence of central line-associated bloodstream infections in infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, were selected.Data ExtractionIncidence rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections were extracted, as well as information on vascular access team tasks and team composition. The quality of studies was critically appraised using the McMaster tool for quantitative studies.Data SynthesisSeven studies involving 136 to 414 participants were included. In general, the implementation of a vascular access team coincided with the implementation of concurrent interventions. All vascular access teams included nurses, and occasionally included physicians. Main tasks included insertion and maintenance of central lines. In all studies, a relative decrease of 45-79% in central line-associated bloodstream infections was reported.ConclusionsA vascular access team is a promising intervention to decrease central line-associated bloodstream infections in infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit. However, level of evidence for effectiveness is low. Future research is required to improve the strength of evidence for vascular access teams.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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