As long as I've been in nursing, when the dinosaur roamed the earth, I've never had any dealings with dialysis until recently. I have a few questions. They're probably dumb, but please bear with me.
OK. We have a resident who goes to dialysis M-W-F at 0600. We have instructions to put this Lidocaine cream to the graft site which is on his Left forearm an hour before the dialysis. OK, easy nuff.... huh? The cream is called E..... something. Darn, I used it once and already I forgot the name. I'm not sure of the application, so I asked this other nurse I work with to apply it. The instructions say not to smear it around, but to place half of the 5gm tube the site to be used, then apply the tega derm over it. It didn't say apply it to two spots. Well he put the cream on and smeared it over the entire site then applied the tega derm which really didn't stick too well because he smeared it beyond where the tega derm was supposed to stick to. I'm thinking, hmmm, this doesn't seem right, but I guess he knows what he's doing.(?) Got a call from renal while the resident was there and the renal guy, a nurse, said to "rotate sites" when applying the cream the next time which will be Monday. Also said to place it anywhere you feel a "pulse" at the site and apply it in two places...Entry and exit portals. Could someone please explain to me what exactly I'm to do here? It's kind of difficult getting an inservice over the phone. Actually another nurse will be doing it because I'm off on Monday, and that's another thing. The same nurse won't be applying this cream all the time, so I'd like to get it right for all of us. Therefore, I'll need an answer say like tonight and before 0800 tomorrow morning because I won't be back tomorrow night for Monday. You gals/guys are the greatest. Thank you so very much in advance. :kiss