Do you "foil" your lipid tubings?

[sherirn127]

This is my first post so bear with me.

Does your unit require you to place aluminum foil (or other protective barrier) around your lipid tubings to protect from light? I have heard both ways on my unit we do "foil our lipids" but other surrounding hospitals do not. Does anyone have any current info on this? THANKS

[jess_m]

We have these brown bags that go over the lipids and the tubing itself is also dark brown. The whole TPN and IL set up is changed completely every 24 hours.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

We used to change our IV fluid tubings, D10 and above, every 24 hours, and med tubing every 3 days. Now we change our IV fluid tubing every 72 hours, and med tubing every 24 hours. Lipid tubing is changed every 24 hours, and we don't wrap it in foil. We don't cover our TPN bags, either.

[lovemyjob]

We are now going to q96 hr tubing changes for HAL and Meds (from q72). I dont think we would be changing if it was unsafe.

[cajrio]

In the 3 units I have worked in we did not foil the lipids lines are changed every day.

[Tomskatt]

In my 12 yrs and 5 hospitals, this is the first hospital I have ever seen that puts brown bags on the TPN and Lipids (or Triple Mix, as they use here). We change our setup like everyone else here, every 24 hours. Nothing on our clear tubing.

[LaNICUnurse]

I believe we're doing a study on central line infections- hence changing lines according to drip rates and changing lines on a sterile field. Also our mixed solutions expire q24.

I would like to know the results when you have them.

We change TPN and lipids q24. Anything less than D5 is every 96, we run tko at .5ml on UA and UV ports that are needed for meds. We're in the process of changing our policies now.

Oh, and we have never covered our lipids in this hospital, but my first did put brown bags over them, however that was when I began NICU