How much does a bag of fluids cost?

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  1. This is a discussion on How much does a bag of fluids cost? in Nursing Scrubs / Uniforms / Gear, part of General Nursing ... Hey everyone! Hopefully someone can help me with this question. My school is required us to buy...

    by Aug 18, '12
    Hey everyone! Hopefully someone can help me with this question. My school is required us to buy these mysterious bags for sim lab. I am a senior, and this is brand new. The bags are zip-tied and once opened, cannot be returned to the bookstore. No one at the bookstore knew what was in them, and the teachers just kept saying it was mandatory. I finally decided to buy one--at $85, and when I opened it up, it was nothing but a 500 ml bag of 0.9% sodium chloride, one IV primary tubing, and a disposable infuse-stat pressure bag. Do these things cost that much? They are all one time usage things meaning we will use them ONE time in the lab. Normally the school provides these things for us. Maybe they are running low on supplies or resources, but $85 for these 3 things?!
    Thanks for any input!
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    by kk2021 Aug 18, '12 4:42 pm
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  3. 24 Comments so far...

  4. Aug 18, '12 by
    omg you guys got hosed! that's pretty brutal from your school

    thats about $17 worth of supplies, at the most

    http://www.eastcoastmedicalsupply.com/exelIVadministration.aspx
    http://www.savelives.com/product/sodium-chloride-09-500ml-bag-4710.cfm?gclid=CJ-nz5iV8rECFcZcMgodt3QA8A
    http://www.progressivemed.com/estyle...FeZDMgodARoAfA
    Nurse Maru, turnforthenurseRN, and redhead_NURSE98! like this.
  5. Aug 18, '12 by
    A lot of places online require a medical license to purchase even iv fluids. Amazon has them though. Not expensive. I think it's under $10. Why they hike prices up so much is ridiculous.
  6. Aug 18, '12 by
    Quote from eatmysoxRN
    A lot of places online require a medical license to purchase even iv fluids. Amazon has them though. Not expensive. I think it's under $10. Why they hike prices up so much is ridiculous.
    Yea seems strange to be selling NS in the bookstore, I had my ear chewed on a few times for flushes in my pocket because "NS is a MEDICINE" :icon_roll
  7. Aug 18, '12 by
    Thanks for your replies! I thought it seemed odd too. The bookstore isn't directly selling the fluids, they just received the pre-packaged, zip-tied bags and actually had no idea what was in them! I am going to e-mail my course coordinator and complain (not like it will do much good, considering I already bought the bag). It's just so frustrating because I am on an extremely tight budget, and it really makes me mad that I spent so much money on this dang bag!
  8. Aug 18, '12 by
    I am shocked to see a school making the students buy the IV supplies. I see the student buying the scrubs, stethoscopes, shears, etc. But the IV supplies that is totally wrong. The one thing I would suggest is go to your family doc to see if they could give you a set for free. Some docs are great that way. The other thing is also talk to the nurse on your next clinical rotation. That is how I get some of the equipment I need for my medical mission trips.

    Maybe the school needs to budget better for the nursing school.
    DawnJ likes this.
  9. Aug 18, '12 by
    We were all shocked..this is our 6th semester and up until this point, all the IV supplies have been provided for us. The school is a separate health sciences center, consisting of the medical school, the dental school, the nursing school, allied heath, and physical therapy. So the budget should allow for things like IV supplies--it's not just a college campus with a nursing major. I work at a hospital as a nurse tech, and could possibly get some of these supplies, but I've already purchased the bag so I guess it's useless :/
    I will definitely be complaining, and maybe the future classes will be spared from this ridiculousness!
  10. Aug 18, '12 by
    Curious. What's the rationale for having to buy a bag of NS for school? So you can spike it, prime a line then toss it out? That's kind of stupid.
    ScrubRNwannabe, sarakjp, and Silverlight2010 like this.
  11. Aug 18, '12 by
    My thoughts exactly! They have tons of bags that we have already learned and practiced doing this last year..I honestly do not see the point of purchasing this bag. We have our first lab next week, so I guess I'll find out
  12. Aug 19, '12 by
    And when your practice bag of 0.9% NaCl is empty you can fill it with 100% H2O!
    ScrubRNwannabe and ashleyisawesome like this.