Antiemetic Shortage

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Sort of a rant but for whatever reason at my facility we are being told there is a shortage of IV compazine, zofran, reglan and now we are running short on IV phenergan and most patients have it set up as IM phenergan. REALLY!!!! How are we so short on all of these drugs! I just do not get it....must be another debacle of the healthcare system

So I have to tell my nauseated uncomfortable rectal cancer pt that not only do we not have much to give them BUT all we have is an IM injection.... let me tell you the response I got "I would rather be nauseated and puke than have another injection" can you blame them????

Oh and not to mention the 5000 Unit SQ heparin shortage that we are now required to pull from the 10,000 unit vial and get a cosign....talk about waste of time and energy.

Thanks for listening

Specializes in PACU.

We're currently short on injectable ondansetron, but there's still plenty in the Pyxis for now. When feasible the orally disintegrating tablets are being given as a substitute. I've noticed that some of the anesthesiologists are being less aggressive with nausea prophylaxis than they usually are due to the shortage, while some others have been giving more of other drugs (e.g. droperidol) that we have plenty of.

I like using something sedating like droperidol or promethazine for the inpatients, but for the outpatients I like ondansetron because it's less likely to delay discharge for sedation reasons. Scopolamine patches can be great. A little extra IV fluid in someone who can tolerate it often works wonders.

Don't forget to give the ol' alcohol pad sniff a try, especially when you're giving a drug that takes longer to work, or the only prescribed drugs aren't doing the trick. In my experience it often helps very, very quickly. There are multiple studies to support it. When I think about it, I always stuff some alcohol pads in my pocket so that if a patient c/o nausea while we're in transit or after arriving on the floor I have a treatment at hand.

I wager the alcohol sniff might not be the best treatment for the hung over patient, however. :barf01:

yup, sort of all those things here, as well as versed, papaverine, vec and a few others. Starting to get real frustrating as I work in peds and there aren't always a ton of alternatives

Specializes in med/surg.

we have been out of compazine for a while, and we have a critical shortage of phenergan and zofran. (Missouri)

Specializes in critical care/tele/emergency.

Have seen the shortage of antiemetics but the most frustrating one is IV Valium. Had a seizing peds pt but pharm said they had been out for a couple months. Ativan just doesn't seem to work as well or as quickly.

I find it hard to fault the government for having regulations in place to guarantee sterility and quality of IV drugs. There's a recall on OTC meds right now where you could open the bottle of something and get a few "bonus pills" mixed in of random other meds. Do we really want things like that happening with our IV meds?

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Our hospital in South Florida also has a shortage of Reglan, Zofran, Ativan, Toradol and even Hydromorphone (and more)! When the patient needs these medications we must call the pharmacy and let them know and sometimes it takes well over an hour to get our PRN medication we shouldn't have to wait on.

I thought it was just our hospital. We are ok on Zofran, but short on fentanyl and Valium. Which is a nightmare in the ER. Pharmacy is drawing up syringes and putting them in pyxis with a barcode. This practice makes me uncomfortable though. It seems a little too easy to divert meds.

Specializes in ER, ICU.

This just makes me sick! (Sorry couldn't help it lol)

+ Add a Comment