[njmcavoy]

that is one thing that I actually never thought about! I'm not sure how much volume is there. I have both a call and an email out to the pump manufacturer to ask them.....because, on the other side of that coin--if you want to shut off your pitocin because of a decel or something, but you still want your IVF's to run, how much do you need to bleed through that line to be ensured that all the pit is gone?

BTW: I work in a hospital where we do about 5000 deliveries a year.....EVERYONE gets pitocin. We're excited if they make it through without.

[JenTheRN]

Our policy is to ALWAYS piggyback the pit to the closest port to the vein. Otherwise, the doses cannot be calculated properly (due to such minute dosing at first) and if the need comes to shut off the pump quickly, you would still have a bunch of pit in the line. (It's an ACOG and AWHONN standard as well.)

[njmcavoy]

Their argument is that you are still hooking the pit to the closest port to insertion, because it is going in through the pump tubing. If you need to shut the pit off, you need to shut the whole pump off. I don't agree either...........like I said, I want to use two pumps. they say no. That's why I was wondering if I could find anywhere else that does it this way?? I had always thought that pit was supposed to be on a line all of its own.

[JenTheRN]

Just curious: if you have your pit piggybacked on the pump with your main IV, and your main IV is at 125ml per hour, how do you control the pit?

Oh and TKO = To Keep Open.

[njmcavoy]

Ah. thank you. we use KVO-keep vein open.

The secondary line has its own program to set. The manufacturer says that you can run two things (even sensitive medications) at the same time at different rates, and they will, in fact, run at their independent rates. The secondary line still only allows a certin amount of pitocin into the line

[JenTheRN]

Do you have double pumps?

[njmcavoy]

No. all we have are triple pumps. they are ENORMOUS. Apprently the company doesn't make double pumps, which I find odd....would be a win all the way around

[JenTheRN]

Triple pumps?! I didn't know they made such an animal!

But I still say that you need to have your pit on the port closest to the vein.

Tell your boss to check out the ACOG and AWHONN standards.


(PS- we run everything on piddley old single pumps. We are lucky if we get a double one!)

[njmcavoy]

some of the other staff agree with her, which stinks. Thank you so much for your input. I'll keep doing some research and checking back here to see if anyone else does their pitocin this way (I find it very bizarre).

Thanks for your comments. Off to bed, have to work tonight. Take care

[Jolie]

If your manager insists on being cost-conscious about pumps and tubing, why not just run the primary IV in by gravity, and reserve the use of the pump for the pitocin, which would be connected to the port closest to the patient?

I would rather run the maintenance IVF by gravity, perhaps using a buretrol to control the amount of fluid that would be available in the event of an inadvertent free-flow, than to have 2 different bags of IVF, one on a pump and one not.

jJWjould that be acceptable by AWHONN standards?