A coworker had a one-hour antibiotic infusion scheduled for 0600. She opted to hang it at 0635 so it wouldn't finish at an inopportune time during the 0700-0730 shift change. Another coworker indicated that this was seriously inappropriate of her. They even said, "Well, it's your license on the line," implying that action could be taken against her license.
I'm really curious what could possibly be wrong with this. An antibiotic scheduled for 0600 can be started any time between 0500 and 0700 (at this hospital at least) and still be considered on time. I don't see any reason why the person who hung the antibiotic has to be the one to saline-lock afterwards. It's not like you have to stay with and continuously monitor the patient during antibiotic infusions. If that were the rule we would have a 1 to 1 nurse-to-patient ratio.
Does anybody agree with this other nurse? Is there something I'm missing that makes what the nurse did horrible?
Save and preserve me. What I really wish is that everyone who "Chicken Littles" about losing (or loosing, in some circles) licenses would have their licenses taken away.
This is dumb. What would the oncoming nurse think about a 2 hr vanco infusion timed for 0600? If you are an inpatient nurse you will literally take patients who have meds infusing that you didn't hang all the time. No one's license is at risk.
Confirm the patient, med and rate when you start your shift with anything infusing. You can get in trouble for not noticing for several hours that the wrong med is hanging or that the clamp was never unrolled on that antibiotic.
WOW. I can't believe this is even a question. Of course it is OK and quite appropriate to have an infusion finish on the next shift. In my 30 years of nursing, this is the first time I've heard anyone think otherwise, and especially to say "well, its your license."
Take it to a logical conclusion and you don't have to go far to see how ridiculous that is.
That said...I do think each shift should have a goal of completing their tasks if it is reasonable to do so. Unless I knew things went off the rails towards the end of shift, I'd be slightly annoyed if I still had a 6am antibiotic running when I came in.
If it can be planned to be finished by end of shift, then it should be. But it's not a big enough deal that I would ever say actually say anything. Just a minor annoyance.
Why would you be annoyed? It's scanned, up, and running. Depending on how your facility runs piggybacks, the most you would have to do is spike a flush bag behind it and then shut off a pump.
Specializes in Surgical, Home Infusions, HVU, PCU, Neuro.
Does the same apply to IVF infusing? Does this person want you to take all them down as well so they dont overlap shifts? This is one of the most absurd things I have heard in a while.
RNperdiem, RN
4,592 Posts
The only thing won't do right at the end of shift is give a laxative suppository. Antibiotics? No problem.