IV Administration problems - Roller clamp vs Pump

A dial-a-flow works very well, but are only used in the ER at my hospital. But for straightforward rehydration, it's a good option.

the pump is "incredibly complex"???

The pump is one of my best buds!!!

Pardon me for asking, but what is so difficult about a pump? You prime the line, insert it in the pump, and turn it on. Accurate as you can get.

For straight rehydrations, what's so hard about a roller clamp? You need to know how many drops/ml set you're using, do some simple math and watch the drip chamber and your watch for 15 seconds. All told, not much longer to set up than the pump. I still do many IVs that way, as long as they don't need really tight titration/control.

BTW, you know that before pumps were ubiquitous, we all did all gtt with adjusting the clamp/watching the drip chamber. Pressors, Abx, the whole bit. I'm not saying we should go back to that; but it works and one should know how to do it, at least as a backup.

I'm trying to learn, it def. takes practice! We are supposed to use the pumps. But when 4 people are getting abx at the same time and you only have 2 pumps... They let me use the pumps first, since "Im new." It helps when I'm in a time crunch, I can set it and go. But I really want some more practice time with manual method. I know the math, that's my favorite part! I just need to SEE the 27 gtt/min and make it happen!

Don't you all find there's a shortage of pumps in your hospitals, I can never find one...... and roller clamps lose their accuracy almost immediately after I've set them..... hhmmmm...thanks for all your responses!

Pumps? What pumps?

i love iv pumps. it is the safest way to administer meds and fluids especially when the are set at a certain rate.

I love the control a pump gives you, it just takes me ages to set the things. Most of the time all I'm interested in is setting the Flowrate and the volume to be infused (VTBI), the rest of the functionality is just there to confuse me.

I don't see what's so difficult about using a pump (or the roller clamp for that matter), especially just for fluid replacement. Probably you are just not using the pump often enough to be at ease with it. I love our Baxter pumps, and when I first started floating to another ICU I hated having to mess with their Omniflo's, but after a little practice they also became second nature to program. If you avoid using the pumps they will always seem complex to you.

I work with a lot of CHF and renal patients, so a pump isn't an option, it's a necessity. I love my pumps, especially the Guardian feature for specific drips. Makes me crazy when people don't use that feature for our cardiac drips or blood thinners.

If there aren't enough pumps in house to meet demand, the hospital has a contract with a company to rent them.

If only we could get housekeeping to plug them back in when they're done cleaning them, so the darn batteries would quit failing....

Pumps are great. Far more accurate, and safer. Less chance of a fluid overload.