forgetting to prime an IV line

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Hi nurses,

I had a student with me who asked to prime IV tubing. The student spiked the bag and connected the tubing to the IV site really quickly and I'm pretty sure she put the tubing into the pump (I can't be exactly sure though because it was a few weeks ago). I should have been directly supervising her but it was at the very end of my shift, I guess I was distracted and trying to sort out my post operative patient. Anyway, I checked the IV line before the pump was started and couldn't see any fluid in the line-- turns out it was all air. So we primed the line together and then started the infusion through the pump.

So my question is- could any air have entered the IV site because it was connected up to the patient? p.s it was a peripheral line with a positive pressure valve.

Thanks everyone!

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

Probably not, because of mean Venus pressure

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Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.

not if the clamp was closed, even if a small amount of air enters through PIV it is harmless. Think about all the gas exchange that occurs in the pulmonary system!

Annie

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Specializes in Cath Lab.

In the future, one lesson I learned from my instructors that prevents anything like that from happening is:

prime the line first, then put it in the pump and program the pump. The last thing is to hook it to the patient, so you never end up pushing air into them, and don't ever have an issue in case (which rarely happens) the pump malfunctions and just bolus's the patient

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Thanks, It was just that the student did it without me realising. I always prime before connecting and putting the line into the machine. I was just thinking about the what happened today and it made me freak out a bit thinking that there's a chance air may have been gotten into the vein. It was weeks ago but I'm pretty sure the clamp was closed and I know that I primed the whole line after I found it filled with air..

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

In a peripheral line some air won't hurt the Pt and should be absorbed/mixed by the time it hits the vena cava but in a central line, etc this would be a totally different story. The pump should always do a systems check each time the cartridge is inserted and would register air I would think causing a malfunction. I've only really worked with plum pumps and other types of PCA/epidural pumps though.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Some pumps require the pump to prime it.... Makes me nervous[emoji51]

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