Would like some expert opinions

Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2006

If so, that's probably how I'd handle it, and leave it at that. You could also ask the manager of the clinic to let the nurses draw up the vaccines as they are being given. Unless it is a manufacturers prefilled syringe - or filled in the pharmacy and delivered with a clear label, then I wouldn't be comfortable giving it. I think that it is perfectly reasonable to tell your manager that you are uncomfortable giving meds that you did not draw - it is your license!

Blee

GingerSue · Nov 21, 2006

I wouldn't give any medication that I have not prepared myself (unless it is manufacturer-prepared and labelled)

How do you know what is in a syringe that has been prepared by someone else?

nuangel1, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2006

I wouldn't give any medication that I have not prepared myself (unless it is manufacturer-prepared and labelled)
How do you know what is in a syringe that has been prepared by someone else?

absolutely agree if i haven't drawn it up i wouldn't use it.unless it was a sealed prefilled manufacturer syringe for ex .ns flush.

TazziRN, RN · Nov 21, 2006

My daughter's first flu vax: the doc held a flu shot clinic for kids and they were all scheduled at the same time...sign in, get called in order of arrival. In the treatment room the nurse had a bath basin full of prefilled syringes (not from the manufacturer but by the nurse), and the label was on the basin, not the syringes. I asked who had drawn them up, she said "I did." If she had said it wasn't her I would have insisted she draw up a syringe in front of me. I don't draw it, I don't give it.

GingerSue · Nov 21, 2006

if she hadn't been there to tell you, then even with the labelled basin - would you have given those pre-filled syringes?

TazziRN, RN · Nov 22, 2006

if she hadn't been there to tell you, then even with the labelled basin - would you have given those pre-filled syringes?

You mean me, or the OP? I wouldn't have, unless I'd seen her draw them up.

GingerSue · Nov 22, 2006

it's a general question - it keeps me thinking

(I wouldn't give anything prepared by another person. period)

Roseyposey · Nov 22, 2006

Thank you all for your input - you are confirming exactly what I was thinking. I appreciate all of you for taking the time to give me your opinions.

TazziRN, RN · Nov 22, 2006

it's a general question - it keeps me thinking
(I wouldn't give anything prepared by another person. period)

I would but only if I saw the person drawing up the med. In the ER there can be two of us on one pt, and one drawing up a med and another giving it...especially in a code. If I see it drawn up and I see the vial, I'll give it.

miko014 · Nov 22, 2006

absolutely agree if i haven't drawn it up i wouldn't use it.unless it was a sealed prefilled manufacturer syringe for ex .ns flush.

There is a nurse I always work with who CONSTANTLY gives me handfuls of manufacturer prefilled NS syringes when she leaves...only she has already opened the packages. I tell her again and again not to take them out of the wrapper, but she doesn't listen. If they aren't sealed I don't use them. She doesn't get it. Drives me NUTS! But then, a lot of things that she does drive me nuts. But our floor has a policy - if you draw it up, you give it, and nobody gives anything that they don't draw up themselves (except manufacturer or pharmacy pre-filleds). I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I don't know of anybody who doesn't follow this rule (except maybe in an ememrgency situation like Tazzi described).