help! What would you do!?

Nurses Safety

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0Hello,

i had a colleague on shift change alert me that a SC set was leaky and changed the site. I had the patient prior and knew about the site. I discovered that the pt was recently transferred from another facility. I looked up orders and realized there was not an order for a SC set and the nurse d/c old one and replaced it.

What will happen to the nurse? Has this happened to anyone before? Should I report it?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

What is a SC set?

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I Googled it, I guess subcutaneous infusion make sense?

I am sure some nurses would make a big fuss over this.

So the patient was previously transferred from another facility. I think the facility who transferred the patient should have clarified with the doctor if he/she wanted the subcutaneous infusion discontinued at the time of discharge.

The patient came to your facility with the subcutaneous infusion running and it was not caught that there was no order (by the same doctor? or a different doctor?) to continue it. No one realized it hadn't been reordered.

What was it infusing? Pain medication? Insulin? Chemotherapy agents? Heparin? Nitroglycerin? Normal Saline? Dopamine? Anyway personally I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. Unless it was some potent powerful drug. Simply call the admitting doctor, ask if he/she wanted the subcutaneous infusion stopped or continued.

My imagination was going a little overboard. Can you imagine dopamine subcutaneous....YIKES.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I assume the OP is referring to a subcutaneous infusion set, which I've only ever seen used for insulin pumps and palliative care. Why did the patient have a SQ set in place initially?

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