Response to Harris and Harris Letter

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the Melvyn Harris, MD and Toni Harris, MD (2012) letter to the editor regarding our article, “Does the use of an assistive device by nurses impact peripheral intravenous catheter insertion success in children?” (Peterson, Phillips, Truemper, & Agrawal, 2012). Harris and Harris raised concerns regarding the bias created by the study design which they state resulted in unsubstantiated conclusions. We addressed their points within our original manuscript. The nonrandomized, prospective study design was chosen to test the clinical utility of the device within an actual acute care, pediatric setting while maintaining Infusion Nursing Society's Peripheral Intravenous Standards. Harris and Harris pointed out that further bias was created by the method of device selection and use. These factors were clearly identified in our Discussion section and reviewed at length to identify how they may have impacted the study results. In recognizing potential bias related to study design and other uncontrolled confounding factors a power analysis was completed to determine the number of insertion attempts needed in each study group to demonstrate statistical significance. The actual sample size in each of our study groups was sufficient to meet the power analysis.