Air in IV flush syringe??

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Is it just me or does anybody else leave clinical thinking they did something wrong and obssess over it? I'm extremely paranoid about air in my prefilled syringe to flush peripheral IV lines (I'm not allowed to do central lines yet). I know that i need to push the air out and I do but, after I left clinical the other day I thought 'did I push the air out of my IV flush syringe?' Now I'm at the point that I'm freaking out about it....

Does anyone know how much air is too much air when pushing an IV peripheral flush? I would think that that air was no more than 1cc? I leave clinical freaking myself out. It's kind of like "did I forget to turn off my curling iron" and I just freak myself out thinking my house is going to burn down...I'm beginning to think nursing isn't for me bc of my obsessive thoughts drive me crazy...I don't want to seriously hurt anybody!! Ugh....:confused:

tiny bubbles in my veins are as much trouble as the ones in my intestines...who knew?

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Thanks all for the replies. I did inform my clinical instructor about it and she said not to worry...If she's not worried about it I guess I shouldnt be. I know from now on Ill be double checking to make sure all bubbles are out of my syringes/IV flush. So I'm not at home wondering if I did it or not! This whole episode me a nervous wreck thinking about it...

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Specializes in ICU.

The 20ml, was just to ease the mind that if a 0.5ml happened ot get in there, it's totally fine.

I always expell my air..

I was one of them in nursing school who stayed up at night wondering if I gave my patient an air embolus because I may have not gotten all the air out.

KNowing it took 20ml put my dear mind to rest.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
injecting bubbles is medico legal harzad proper expeling of air should be done before you flush ,another thing is flushing of IV line allowed?

I'm really not trying to be rude about this...just find out what your comments are about. In short, huh?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

We were shown once what the latest studies showed, someone showed us with IV tubing. It was a significant amount that it would take. It's still scary I think though because that fear has always been put into people. I was doing my Dad's infusion once and here was a small bubble in he tubing, he was all paranoid and I had to calm him down that the little bubble was not going to hurt him.

Someone someone else said though, I still try to get all air out I can.

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Specializes in CICU.

Little bubbles don't hurt, but I make sure I prime the line well enough to keep the pump from alarming!

I also think about the patients - if they see any air bubbles in the line it might bother them, although it wont' hurt them physically.

What drives me bonkers is trying to keep the dang bubbles out of my insulin syringes...

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Little bubbles don't hurt, but I make sure I prime the line well enough to keep the pump from alarming!

Now that is the real key!

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Specializes in Medical.
I also think about the patients - if they see any air bubbles in the line it might bother them, although it wont' hurt them physically.

I tell all my patients who've got infusions that on TV people painstakingly flick out every bubble (and often squirt the fluid into the air for some bizarre reason) but in real life they need to have more than the whole length of the tubing go in before there's a problem, so not to freak if they see the odd bubble. I've not had one freak out after that :)

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I did have one pt "freak out" about air (sorta) in the line. She was getting a bolus of fluids, not on a pump. When the bag was empty, the little bit of air in the bag filled up about the top 1/3 of the tubing. She rang and when I had gotten in there, she had disconnected the tubing from her IV herself and said "I've had enough IV stuff to know that I can't let the air get into me. Ugh. At least she was being proactive about her care.

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Specializes in Intermediate care.

Usually the air bubble doesn't even go through. If your holding it up, the bubble floats to the top, and by the time you get to push the air bubble through, all it does is stay inside the connector part of the syringe.

if any of that makes sense. Little air bubbles are ok.

for future, just remove any air bubbles. Point it strait up, pull back slightly and then push up gently until air bubble is removed! Sometimes if you just push up, without pulling back first you push out the medication and not the air bubble, it helps if you break the seal first.

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Specializes in Medical.

If that happens again, psu, you can let the patient know that the combination of gravity and fuel dynamics mean air won't proceed further than 2/3 of the way down the tubing, so she's safe :)

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*60 cc's does sound like a lot though. Does anyone know the exact amount that could actually kill someone? Or cause problems?

I was told 100 ccs. I'll never know. ;)

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