Speaking of changing lines....

[BittyBabyGrower]

When you hang a piggyback med on a syringe pump, do you change the tubing every time or do you put a flush on and leave the flush on and only change the syringe out? I have been doing some research and it seems that there are places that do this and use the same tubing for 48-72 hours. We are looking for ways to decrease our line sepsis. It sounds like a good idea and I can see the rationale for it as you aren't entering the line closest to the baby all the time. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[PremieOne]

We have a separate med system that has either NSS or 1/2NSS in a bag. We have a special flush system where you place your med syringe on the syringe pumpand infuse through tubing that is piggybacked to TPN or what ever IV solution you are running. We change this system q 72hrs. No infections so far. If med not compatable with TPN/or lipids they are turned off till med is in.

[lovemyjob]

Yes. The tubing stays attached at the stopcock but the syringe at the other end is changed over and over. It doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Plus then we end up leaving a big long med tubing hanging off the IV line, and of course it gets in the way when baby is being held, etc.

And another thing I wonder about, these med tubings are primed with NS that comes form those little SINGLE USE bottles that are preservative free. So if it's a few hours between meds, the NS jsut sits in the tubing until we infuse another med.

All fluids given to a baby are preservative free. Also, the inside tubing of the medline is sterile when you open it and u infuse sterile normal saline through it, so though the fluid may sit in it a while, the system is sterile. Plus there is no glucose to feed the bacteria, so its ability to thrive is limited.

[justjenny]

We use brand new tubing for each med -unless it is two meds due at same time (ex: 1300 Amp and Gent are due....Some RNs hook up Amp and run it over 5 minutes, flush then run Gent, flush and D/C tubing)

We RARELY use central lines and that seems to be the difference in our low infection rates...only the tiniest and sickest get a central line of ANY kind (UAC, PICC, Broviac) the MAJORITY are all PIV.

Jenny