LPN IV Push

[2rntish]

Good day one and all. Does your facility have a policy that limits the drugs that an LPN can give IV after attending an IV push class? I have polled several hospitals in our area and had a variety of answers. Our facility has about 15 drugs the LPN can push. Other hospitals let them push everything with a few exceptions. How do you do it?

Atleast 1 hospital also let the LPN hang blood...

[rebelwaclause, ASN, RN]

you've got a point there!

[stressedlpn]

serious though yall we all have to get down and dirty, wipe rear ends clean snot ect... I do try to help the RN like in an emergency while she is pushing (since we all know I cant push) I do other vital things to help like get monitors hooked up or well youknow what I am trying to say. If i've said it once I've said it a thousand times we are all on the same team, well i theory anyway

[MQ Edna]

At the facility I work at, LPNs are allowed to start and maintain peripheral IV lines, after the IV cert class. We cannot hang blood or do IV push medications, but can administer IV solutions via pump and flush lines per protocol of the facility.

[Love-A-Nurse]

originally posted by ^a^lpn

at the facility i work at, lpns are allowed to start and maintain peripheral iv lines, after the iv cert class. we cannot hang blood or do iv push medications, but can administer iv solutions via pump and flush lines per protocol of the facility.

and welcome to the board!

[Sekar]

In North Carolina pushing IV Medications is with the Scope of Practice for a LPN. The training (Education, whatever) is provided in the Practical Nurse programs and we must pass competency trials before we graduate from School. Don't assume we are untrained or unskilled, we might just surprize you.

[MishlB]

Love ya stressedlpn.

I realize taking a "class" may not give me all the info I need to know, but it's a start. How much did YOU really know after graduating? Give us LPN's a break, we are not second class citizens. A title doesn't mean SQUAT, except that you have been to school.

[mattsmom81]

A good friend of mine is an LPN. We've worked together in ICU for years and she is an excellent critical care nurse. She can do anything she's qualified for on our unit except charge...cuz our state, hospital and unit policies provide for this. :)

She needed some extra $$$, so she took a PRN job at a neighbor hospital in the area. This facility's restrictions on LPN's were ridiculous! She had to run down the RN to give all her IV meds, coudn't do the head to toe asessment of her patient, yada yada. She was so frustrated and the worst of it: the RN's there openly RESENTED HER...for the HOSPITAL's stupid restrictive policies!!

She did not stay on after her 3 month orientation, and when she quit she gave a very candid exit interview which I totally agreed with. If a facility is going to restrict a good LPN this way and allow the RN's to treat them like dirt, they don't deserve to have good help....and this facility lost a wonderful nurse...:stone

[norinradd]

As an LPN in Oklahoma I was able to do everything but initiate a blood tranfusion. With my ACLS, PALS and Bard PICC and midline certification I was expected to perform all of these skills and more. In ICU or ER I often gave meds during the code, defib and intubated. I was my facilities trauma resource person and had pass TNCC but due to being an LPN I could not recieve a card.

As an LVN in Texas I am able to do these and more. Here I can Hang the blood and with chemo certification administer chemotherapy agents and frequently access ports and utilize central lines.

I respect all nurses and there training. I am the primary preceptor for my unit (LVN and RN) and have found little difference between knowledge levels of new grads. I have had many nurses who have went on to get there RN to tell me they had less hands on and practical training in RN than they did in LPN/LVN programs.

I good nurse can have any initials behind their name and be respected as a poor nurse can have any intial behind their name and not be.

[DIPLOMATICRN4HIRE, MSN, RN]

I dont recall knowing of a Hospital that allows LPNs to push medications. I thought it was out of the spectrum of care as Far as the Board Of Nursing was concerned. I could be highly wrong in this because I dont work on the floor anymore . In the area I work at an LPN can not push drugs, nor hang blood , they can second varify but not hang. As far as thier being able to if trained Im sure they could, but I would think it would stretch thier coverage on certain medications.Things change when you work in the dungeon of the hospital as I do (surgery) , I do miss the action that occurs on the floors, and this I see I have truly missed but I think I would flip out if I saw an LPN doing a push, It was the way I was trained even when I was a LPN.

[grandma B.]

I teach LPN IV therapy in KS. LPNs are allowed to give pushes on certain medications only. There is a very specific policy outlining their skills in my institution. I have also taught ADN students and I believe that the LPNs I teach receive more intense IV education than the ADNs do. While their clinical experiences may be less than the ADNs, the LPNs do have a great deal of 'book smarts'.

[NMAguiar]

In California there is a move afoot to allow LVNs to give IV medications -- which seems like a terrible idea to me.

Our website has a poll on the subject, including a link to the CNA's press release on the subject. Take a look if you like (not intended as an "advertisment!")

[Brownms46]

Originally posted by rebelwaclause

I can perform blood transfussions and start IV lines, because I am IV Certified and the state says I can under that certification. I cannot hang IV antibiotics (Wierd, since I can transfuse?...Go figure). I cannot do IV pushes, but I can do SQ anything (Low molicular Lovenox comes to mind). I currently am employed in the med-surg unit, but rotate to the tele unit when needed, because of my ACLS certification. I cannot push cardiac meds, an RN "covers" me for nursing care that is out of my scope of practice.

(Smile).

I would check out CA's "modified" vocational nurse practice act", and I think you will find, that the board never meant for LVNs to not give ABX's or any other med IV! I'm referring to this modified text available online on the BVNs site, and has been proposed for over a year now! It didn't make sense to me, that you could give blood, with is where the most adverse reactions occur, but no ABX! And that you could give flds via a secondary line, but not ABX, which is the commonest use of secondary lines!

The modified text states, that LVNs can not only give ABX IV, but heparin, and any other med!

http://www.bvnpt.ca.gov/pdf/availsecmodtext.pdf