Filter needles

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. does your facility stock filter needles on the floor?

    • 81
      Yes, of course
    • 43
      No!!!
    • 12
      we have them some of the time

136 members have participated

I'm curious, do you use filter needles at your institution? I use them in pharmacy but was really surprised to hear that my hospital doesn't stock them on the floor.

This seems a bit dangerous for the patient. :eek:

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Specializes in ER, Hospice, CCU, PCU.

What do you use when drawing up medications from a glass vial?

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Specializes in Hospice, LTC, Rehab, Home Health.

I have been a nurse for almost 9 years and I haven't seen a filter needle since I left school! As to the question about what is used instead, a plain old needle (however, I do use 1 needle to draw up and a different one to administer.) doesn't help tiny shards in the medication but at least none are clinging to outside of needle!:rolleyes:

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We couldn't function without them considering the amount of Nubain we give. In fact, we just switched to filter "straws". Must be cheaper for the hospital???

Heather

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sadly, i think some nurses do not realize or do not use filterd needles as they should.

we should always be using them for mannitol, nubain (as listed above) and several other drugs. we also should use them to draw out of glass vials. i am not sure how a hospital can not have filtered needles, it is clearly a safety issue.

(unless there is new research out there stating otherwise.)

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In pharmacy we always use filter needles when drawing from an amp. I have used the filter straws before and like those even better.

The good news is that after I questioned why the floors didn't have them, they now do!

It pays to speak up :D

-Roberta

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Specializes in CV-ICU.

Way to go, Roberta! I'll ask why we don't have them where I work and see what the answer is. I guess I never thought about it before because of doing things the way I was taught -- so MANY years ago!;)

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the last hospital I worked at put them out for the ED when someone asked, and now that I'm in a different facility, we don't have them, and maybe I should:confused:

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Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

welllllll, we have them IN the pharmacy...

sooo, we all know better..BUT..

I confess.

I don't know why we don't have them on the floor..we'd be much more likely to comply if we did..i think.

maybe I'll inquire??

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I am currently working as a traveling nurse and neither of the two institutions I have been at have had filter needles on the floors. personally it drives me nuts.

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:o :o I belong to a value analyis commitee of nearly 25 nurses or others in our hospital. We go over the "value" for each item in the hospital. When I brought up filter needles for our brand new unit, no one on the commitee knew what I was talking about. We contacted our purchasing representatives that were missing that day and they bought some for our hospital. BD sells a very nice one compared to filter straws my old institution sold.
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I have read about them, and would feel much more comfortable using them, but apparently most of the hospitals we have been going to for clinical have not had filter needles, and we have also not seen them in Lab study. Has anyone read any studies about the effects of not using filter needles? I would like to know if the in fact help the patients. It makes sence to me to use them, but I would like to know what studies have been showing. :) Thanks

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