Maybe this was answered before, but I did a little search here and couldnt find anything.
With regards to using "Y" tubings with blood transfusions and having a bag of NS ready - Purpose of the Y tubing is so that if there's a transfusion reaction, you can quickly just clamp the blood line and open the NS wide. Isnt the pt going to be getting quite a bit more blood b/c the NS is going to first flush the whole existing line's worth of blood into the pt?
On the standard tubings we use, there's a very distal port approx 6 inches from the insertion site that can accomodate a secondary line. Wouldnt it make more sense to setup a secondary gravity set line with NS and attach it to this distal port, so that if there's a transfusion reaction you're only clearing a few cc of blood from the line, as opposed to 10x that amount with using the Y tubing? (I hope I'm making myself clear here...)
I asked some nurses on my unit and they kind of shrugged, saying I guess that would make sense... I guess my real question is whats the use of the special Y tubing if a secondary line primed with NS and attached to the distal port can work even better?
Thanks everyone.