what are common times to run IV's in ?

Specialties CCU

Published

I am a new nurse working in a CCU/CVICU area and was wondering if some of you seasoned nurses can give me some input about how long certain IV's should go in such as calcium, potassium, mag, etc. I know a lot of this comes along with experience but these are the types of things i sit around and think about :confused:

Thanks, any input is appreciated!

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Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.

I can't tell you about meds you didn't ask about, but of the ones you did, this is how I do it (per facility guidelines):

Mag - 1 gm over 15-20 minutes, 2 gm over 1/2 hour

K - 20meq/hour MAX, must be on cardiac monitoring to run it that fast. The floors with no tele can run it at 10meq/hour only.

Calcium gluconate/chloride - I dilute in 20-30cc and put it on a mini-infuser. Usually goes in over 20-30 minutes.

I think this stuff is in most med books also (administration times.) That's where we get it from, mostly -- we've just memorized it over time.

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thanks! i was looking on our online drug guide at work (lexi-comp) and it gives parameters. i know that i will learn it all eventually with time and experience, thanks for your help.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, ED, Nurse Instructor,.

Dont forget your pharmacy also set times how long it should run but you can base it on the patient needs. You can by an infusing book it helps a whole lot,

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I have never seen Mag infused in less than 4 hours. Im not saying it cant be done, I'm just staying I've never seen it. Maybe that is our hospital pharmacy's policy. IDK.

We run K+ at 10 mEq per hour unless we have an order to run faster. That includes being in the ICU. I just had a patient last night with a critical K of 2.6. The MD ordered 80 mEq over 8 hours. So, even with the critical K, the MD still ordered 10 mEq per hour.

Don't have a lot of experience with the other ones, so I can't tell you for sure.

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Mag Sulfate= 1gram/hr

Calcium 1gram/hr

Potassium 10 or 20 mEq/hr

Kphos/NaPhos- 10mmol/hr

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Specializes in ICU, Postpartum, Onc, PACU.

Where I work we have to run 10mEq K over an hour, Mg 2g over 2 hours, and Calcium over 15 min. I wonder why our times are so different from other facilities?

Hmmmmm

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K 10meq over 1 hour IV/Mg 2gm rider over 2 hours/Las Vegas RN

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Specializes in CVICU, anesthesia.

At my hospital:

Mag is always 1g/hour

Calcium is 1-2g/hour

This is different from what others have said: we run K (10-20meq) over 30 mins-1 hour (central line). 1 hour if no ectopy, no rush. But if they are having any ectopy or it was below 3.5 we always run over 30 mins.

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Specializes in Flight RN, Trauma1 CVICU STICU MICU CCU.

A preceptor once told me that he had run K+ @60/ hour before. Anyone else heard of this?

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Our policy is K 10meq/hr in peripherial IV w/o cardiac monitoring. 20meq/hr in central line with caridac monitoring. I can't imagine running 60meq/hr. Never done it or heard of anyone doing that.

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At our hospital:

K+ infused at 10 mEq/hr even in the ICU.

Mg++ infused at 2 gm over 4 hrs. This is per the pharmacy's recommendations. Maybe it COULD be infused faster, but I have never done it.

The others I don't end up doing very often, so I don't know off the top of my head.

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