IV removal etiquette?

[pa715]

Two questions:

1)how to remove IVs without getting drops of blood on patients?

2) Do you always glove your removed IV and then throw in trash? I just feel like I will stick myself doing that.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

You might want to check into that.....I was taught that any needle adaptable syringe had to go into the sharps container, to prevent theft. The only reason I can think of to put the IV cath in there would be biohazard....

[OCNRN63, RN]

use gauze, hold pressure, and throw it in the sharps bin

Use gauze, hold pressure, throw away in biohazard bin, not sharps bin. Sharps bin is for sharps only, biohazard bin is materials contaminated with blood and other body fluids.. If you keep stuffing gloves and dressings in the sharps bin, you have to replace them more frequently, = more cost for the hospital.

[canned_bread]

As I remove the cannula, I put gauze over it. Kind of slide it over the area as I slide out the cannula. That way pressure is also on the area immediately which is particularly important for patients on anti-coagulants. They can bleed heaps!!!

I place the cannula immediately into a kidney dish and then take that kidney dish to the sharps bin. Two reasons: the glove is not meant to really go into the sharps bin, and it seems slightly dangerous to invert the glove. One time I forgot the kidney dish, so I did invert the glove as the sharps bin was metres away and the policy is not to carry a cannula in your hand across a room!