In my med surg rotations, IV antibiotics were always piggybacked with something (even if the person wasn't on maintenance fluids before). In the psych hospital I'm at anow, all the nurses just run the antibiotic straight (they connect the antibiotic bag to IV tubing, put the tubing on the pump. When the infusion is done, they disconnect the bag and flush with a NSS syringe).
Isn't this wrong? Shouldn't you always piggyback with some fluid so that the fluid runs into the bag after the antibiotic is done and gets all of the antibiotic out of the bag and flushed into the patient?
First and foremost what does the policy of the facility say?
I haven't worked clinicals in quite a while, but for over 25 years I ran many hundreds if not thousands of minibags alone (no main IVF). Did the SASH, saline, antibiotic, saline, heplok deal.
In fact when I first started as an RN there were NO pumps and everything was run by gravity and drip calculation. Then came the dial-a-flow. Any oldtimers remember THEM?
P_RN, ADN, RN
6,011 Posts
First and foremost what does the policy of the facility say?
I haven't worked clinicals in quite a while, but for over 25 years I ran many hundreds if not thousands of minibags alone (no main IVF). Did the SASH, saline, antibiotic, saline, heplok deal.
In fact when I first started as an RN there were NO pumps and everything was run by gravity and drip calculation. Then came the dial-a-flow. Any oldtimers remember THEM?