Question..

KellNY, RN · Jan 22, 2007

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question, but...

A patient will most likely write down what s/he is drinking. If unable, you'll need to keep track of how much juice/h2o/jello/etc you give them (anything liquid).

They should also be able to write down how much they urinate, or you may need to measure what comes from the bedpan or foley catheter.

If it's strict I&O you have to do it every hour or whatever the facitlity's protocol is.

At the end of each shift, you total everything up, and they should be roughly equal.

The nurse will deal with the IV intake.

Any more specific questions?

Hospitalhca · Jan 22, 2007

I'm not quite sure I understand your question either, but I'll try to answer the best I can. Generally the I&O's are done by the aides. It's a good idea to keep track hourly as it tends to get a bit hectic around shift change to do all the charting at the end and try and remember what everybody had in and out. At the end of shift, (hospital at least) it's the aides responsibility to get the intake off of any IV pumps as well, TPN's and Kangaroos, and clear the pump. Generally the pump will display in ML's. Our I&O's for oral fluids are done in CC's. 1oz = 30cc. So naturally you'd do a conversion if you had a 8 oz glass of juice to CC's before you input it into the computer. Basically it's just a running total of anything the patient had orally and anything he/she had out (urine, BM, emesis, etc...)

Hope I didn't just confuse you even more.

Hospitalhca · Jan 22, 2007

ohhh and I forgot, don't overlook the ConstaVac's, HemoVac's, chest tubes, colostomy, JP drains when doing the I & O's, they really hate that when you forget to input those (they'll even call ya at home at 2:30am and they're generally not that friendly when they do!)