I worked for a pediatric oncology hospital and I keep getting the same question. When a patient's central line, PICC, or SQP is flushed with heparin how long must the nurse wait until she can perform...
rnewmanjunkie replied to BinkieRN's topic in General Nursing
Sounds like she had leukemia of some sort. Had her WBC been high before this admission? CLL patients usually have a WBC that gradually increases. If this was a sudden increase, then she had acute...
I work at a children's cancer hospital and when our patients under go chemo, their urine pH is checked every 15 minutes, 30 minutes or every hour depending on the result. Is there a something better...
rnewmanjunkie replied to changeofpaceRN's topic in General Nursing
Just for the record, I'm a Med Tech and we DO NOT dispense meds. We are not trained, or licensed. We cannot instruct nurses on how to use a blood warmer because blood is considered a
I worked in a rural hospital several years ago. The top floor had a psychiatric ward on one end. I got called up there for a blood draw on a new patient. Once I was finished, I left the security desk...
rnewmanjunkie replied to rnewmanjunkie's topic in General Nursing
You never want to "pop the top" off of a vacutainer tube. If you let the vacuum draw the sample from the syringe, then you get the proper amount of blood to anticoagulant and remove the dilutional...
rnewmanjunkie replied to fifi2323's topic in General Nursing
Take a phlebotomy course. Most nursing programs do a "hit and run" training. If you take a phlebotomy course, it focuses only on phlebotomy and the proper technique. Your patients will thank
Had an a child as inpatient. One of the nurses needed him to collect a urine. When her back was turned, he poured lemonade in the cup. The sample was sent to the lab, and the lab nearly died when they...
rnewmanjunkie replied to rnewmanjunkie's topic in General Nursing
Someone mentioned using the yellow vacutainer hub and removing the needle from the outside. Maybe I'm missing something, but the needle is one piece so how would I remove the outside needle? Can the...
Our hospital is trying to solve a dilemma. We use a syringe to draw lab samples from a Hickman line then attach a needle and transfer the blood to the vacutainer tubes. We have an increase in clotted...