I would put this on the student section but experience nurses may have an answer for me.
So, we were asked to create a med sheet for the drugs we might encounter for our Med/Surg rotation. I was assigned "fentanyl."
While researching this, I found that it was given through many and multiple routes, but I was just wondering what is the most common route used on the Med/Surg floor?
I was leaning towards transdermal but I'm not really sure.
Med/surg, I only ever gave it transdermal. In the ED, we give it IV quite often and rarely transdermal (only if we happen to have a boarded admit patient with chronic pain issues who already wears a patch at home).
I most often see it ordered IV for patients with severe acute injuries, especially fractures.
I'm fairly certain I've given iv pushes on a ortho/neuro/trauma floor which at my hospital is essentially med/surg(both kind of take each other's patients if one gets a ton of admits.
Icu: continuous iv infusion alongside sedation. Often will add a transdermal patch when titrating off the continuous infusion. Sometimes they have both.
I've seen fentanyl given iv, po (via lollipop), and transdermal. It's very effective. I've yet to give it myself but it's not really scary unless you give it too quickly.
We use fentanyl PCA's like crazy. Eventually we'll wean them to a patch with IV push break through. We use Actiq lollipops for sedation for bone marrow biopsies.
Fentanyl patch in Hospice. Only problem is you have to have some meat on you for it to properly absorb, and Hospice patients tend to lose weight quickly.
Katie71275
947 Posts
I work L&D. I give fentanyl IV often.