IV pumps for art lines

[shadowflightnurse]

Just curious if anyone is routinely using IV pumps in place of pressure bags on arterial lines? We have a new chief flight nurse who is insisting that we put all art lines on an IV pump to run at 3ml/hr, instead of using the pressure bags. Is this common or is she just a little to OCD? Thanks in advance.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

As is said, we have no real rationale for doing things the way we do them, and trying to elicit any kind of reasoning is like pulling teeth. Our unit says it's part of the 100,000 Lives campaign, but we're only taking selected bits out of each of the bundles and disregarding a lot of the rest. Frustrating. I agree with Zashgalka... make sure it's an official, written and approved policy to protect yourself.

[Critical LPN]

First I applaud anyone (would have to have patience of a saint) that would have to use this type of set-up. The attempts to get out all those bubbles constantly, to prime and everytime blood drawn or pressures done,would be enough of a poor use of staffing time I would think. Also, probably cause for all the trouble with equipment as stated can be directly related to the varied set-ups.

Can anyone also figure out in this day and age when most all units never :angryfire have enough IV Pumps for the normal use for IV fluids and IVPB meds and drips that need to be run, we would want to to do this when the pressure bag system, though not perfect, works fine?

My last question, though should not be an issue if nurses checks their lines---- What about the person who blindly hangs up other ordered IVF by accident on the patient's "Pressure Line Flush".? We all know the answer to have the pump/pole/bag appropriately marked for this, but we also know when the pump bellows and all are busy, a kind associate will grab the IVF bag ordered for the patient and hang it for us and may or may not tell us till far too late that while we were busy with another patient, they happily hung our next ordered fluids. Can't really be mad at them as you just put the system together earlier and did not have time to do all the appropriate red flagging:redlight: of it before your 2 other patient's put on their lights or you just got done with a code and you really meant to get to it sooner. Lord knows that in the dark, all pumps will look the same at the level staff sees as they walk in to "help" hang that IV bag for you. Just cannot see the use again and the risk with both types of equipment that are so familiar to nurses, to risk an error that could be so dangerous. Hey, at least I know where all those IV pumps went that I had on the unit and now can't find for my dopamine drip I need to stabilize my patient.

Good luck with this one but for me and my license, there better be a rock solid policy/procedure if I had to follow it, or I like many above, would refuse this. Definately a potential danger, not cost effective(equipment or nursing time), too much literature, policies and staff trained with both "separately", to risk effects to the patient.