Do you leave your med/flush tubing up?

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  1. This is a discussion on Do you leave your med/flush tubing up? in NICU Nursing / Neonatal, part of Critical Care Nursing ... Do you disconnect your tubing after each med and flush, or do you leave your set up there for X...

    by Mar 26, '08
    Do you disconnect your tubing after each med and flush, or do you leave your set up there for X amount of hours? Also, does anyone use the trifurcated connectors with the filter built onto one of the tails? TIA
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    by BittyBabyGrower Mar 26, '08 6:46 pm
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  3. 25 Comments so far...

  4. Mar 26, '08 by
    I usually leave the flush attached. Rationale is that the tip is still sterile that way so you don't have to clean before hooking up the next med, but I still clean anyway. Either way, it's easier to just turn off the pump. As for the trifurcated connectors, I'm not sure what you are talking about...We use a connector with red/white/blue ports.
  5. Mar 26, '08 by
    Leave it up and reuse the tubing (for up to 4 days).
  6. Mar 26, '08 by
    One of our NNPs actually designed those trifurcated connectors. I heart them. And we leave our med tubing and tri-set on for 96 hours and change the other tubing based on what's running through it and how fast. IL and anything lower than 10cc/hr is q24, anything over is q96. All bags get changed q24, of course.
  7. Mar 26, '08 by
    We leave it up and reuse the tubing for 72 hours.

    I haven't seen the filtered connector, but it sounds pretty neat. We filter just about everything and those sure sound convenient.
  8. Mar 26, '08 by
    Quote from hikernurse
    We leave it up and reuse the tubing for 72 hours.

    I haven't seen the filtered connector, but it sounds pretty neat. We filter just about everything and those sure sound convenient.
    They're so great. Because the most common configuration of IV treatments is TPN, IL, and a med line, that's exactly what they're designed for. You can add single filters on to either of the non-filtered ports, or pop another tri-set on as well. It's like tinkertoys!
  9. Mar 26, '08 by
    Quote from elizabells
    They're so great. Because the most common configuration of IV treatments is TPN, IL, and a med line, that's exactly what they're designed for. You can add single filters on to either of the non-filtered ports, or pop another tri-set on as well. It's like tinkertoys!
    I think I'm going to forward this to our purchasing committee--we're always trying out new things and these sound perfect .
  10. Mar 26, '08 by
    I work tomorrow night; I'll PM you the brand name. Basically (as the story goes) she got tired of screwed-up tubing connections and just wrote to the company all "this is what we need." So they made it for us.
  11. Mar 26, '08 by
    We usually leave our med lines connected to the Trifuse or saline lock, unless the kid is just on one Q24 med or something. We do change our med lines daily though.
  12. Mar 26, '08 by
    FOUR DAYS????
    Oh I wish!!!
    Our tubing, unless it is strictly clear fluids (NS, Dextrose + lytes) is only good for 24hrs and of course all bags are changed q24hrs too.

    Medication tubing is good for 24hrs also!