Need help with priming PCA tubing

[Soneshine]

Hi,

I am returning to a Med/surg floor next week after being out of general floor nursing for a couple of years. I am having some anxiety about simple procedures & setting up a PCA pump is one of them? Anyone have any good instructions or tips for me! Thanks

[SteffersRN87, BSN, RN]

I work in the outpatient/observation setting and use PCA pumps every now and then. Your facility should have some kind of orientation book or guide for PCA use. The hospital where I work gives us a little booklet in orientation, and I keep it in my locker for quick reference.

[StrwbryblndRN]

I can see your concern. One thing that our hosptial does is require verification with anther nurse during set up. By doing this you will can relearn without so much fear and catch any error

[DeeAngel]

I had questions about the pumps as well so I searched online until I found a PDF of the operating manual for the machines we use. Now I have my own personal operating manual for PCA pumps to refer to as needed.

[Soneshine]

Dee Angel,

Could you please send me a link. I actually tried searching the internet first- with really no luck

Thanks

[jzkfel]

I would look in your policy and procedure manual, and do it with another nurse. We use PCAs a lot.

"Prime to the y and your patient won't die" (just prime to the Y where the PCA tubing meets the IV infusion, then clamp the PCA line and flush the IV tubing well- otherwise you'll give an unwanted narcotic bolus when you attach to the pt.)

"Don't extend the line and your patient won't whine" (this is a common mistake. Don't put extension tubing downstream from the Y connector where the IV tubing and PCA tubing meet. If you do the narcotic has to flow through all of the extension tubing before it reaches your patient. Depending on the rate your iv is flowing and the volume of the extension tubing, it can add significant time before the med reaches the patient, leadeing to overuse or underuse of the PCA. If you must extend the line, extend the IV line before the Y, or use a very narrow guage medfusion line to extend it)

[Christen, ANP]

you need to prime the tubing and verify the settings with your charge or another nurse who is willing to instruct you. if you're unsure, it would be dangerous to your patient to do otherwise. :)

[Rhett1]

I am just returning to hospital nursing as welll- we are supposed to verify with another nurse after priming and programing.

[sjg2009]

hi - just wondered where you got these quips from - i am carrying out an audit on PCA priming and cant find anything i can reference, but that is priceless