Blood admin question

i think the idea is that the bedside check is the last check, the final check; once the bag is spiked it can't go back to the blood bank if it's the wrong one. also, if it's spiked and hung at the bedside of the intended recipient it's hugely unlikely that it will find its way to someone else's bedside by mistake.

I have always asked another nurse to come into the room with me as I am reading off the blood bank paperwork so that the other nurse can read back to me the pt's name and MR# straight from the armband. Then I spike it and begin the transfusion in the room.

Personally, I never spike blood until after it's been checked and I'm about to hang it.

Because you never know when something will come up & your administration will get delayed. We use a pneumatic tube system at my hospital, so if I spiked a bag of blood & then found out in the check that something didn't match up, it'd be a giant pain to get it back to blood bank.

It is in our hospital's written policy that the final check by 2 RNs be done at the bedside so that the pt's armband can be used as one of the final identifiers. I have never spiked a bag of blood at nurse's station, a bag of fluid maybe, but never blood or any blood products.

We do the final check at bedside, checking armbands, name, acct, ensure all match before spiking. That way if anything does not match we can always send it back to the blood bank untouched. Once spiked no use to anyone if it is the wrong unit/blood bag.

Ok, thank you. :) Now I know.

On top of the reasons everyone else said, I would not want to spike blood anywhere but the pt's room since it is a biohazard. Hate to see it spilled in general places. I say this because last time I recieved blood the nurse got it on the floor after she spiked it. I was not a nurse at the time so did not think much of it.

The reason it is all done at the bedside is so you don't accidentally pick up someone else's blood (unlikely but it could happen) and hang that instead.

We were always taught to do blood at the bedside. Though I've seen RNs reconstitute ABX in the nursing station, cos the drug room was crowded. I've done it myself with pushes. And as others said it could spill I suppose.

RNmom24, this is why I like AN. I too have learned something here today - and I'm still learning as well after 3 years of RN nursing!

I've been a nurse for 15 years and it has always been safe practice to check the blood with 2 nurses at the bedside BEFORE spiking the blood.

Added note from a lesson recently learned. Take vital signs before spiking blood!

I've always spiked the blood and then taken the V/S, then started it. Recently, we had a patient who had been fine alll day, except for her low hgb. Checked the blood, spiked the blood, as I was spiking, a Nsg student took vitals. Temp was 38.5!

Temp had been 36 that am. Had to waste the blood, and pt was a difficult match! So now, I make sure and check vitals first!