IV count?

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Not asking you to do the homework, just asking for help clarifying what they are asking. It has a picture of an almost empty IV bag. The fluid is below the last marked line. It asks us to determine how much fluid is left in the bag. Otherwise "referred to as the IV count". Am I just looking at this and estimating?

Nope. We had no other information. I guestimated and got the answer right so I suppose I did something right.

And Esme, we are learning time taping now too. We are expected to time tape any IVs we have hanging. Their theory is, in the case of a disaster, be it multiple ER victims and not enough pumps or a natural disaster wiping out all non essential electricity, we will have to know how to hang a bag via drop factor.

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and NOT using pumps for simple hydration will save money.

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Good point morte.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Nope. We had no other information. I guestimated and got the answer right so I suppose I did something right.

And Esme, we are learning time taping now too. We are expected to time tape any IVs we have hanging. Their theory is, in the case of a disaster, be it multiple ER victims and not enough pumps or a natural disaster wiping out all non essential electricity, we will have to know how to hang a bag via drop factor.

Well, 34 years ago, it's all we had.....You dated and timed the bag with your initials if the bag was to infuse in 12 hours you put a piece of cloth tape down the side of the bag and started with your start time and end time and the mid point in the middle. The you stood there with your second had and counted the drops.

DAF_60drops_ml.jpg

We were very excited to get the little dial regulators that fit on the IV line that you "dialed in the rate".

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
and NOT using pumps for simple hydration will save money.
The hospitals will never give up the billable charge. That daily rental charge is great revenue
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Esme, that sounds about right for what we have to do now LOL.

Only, we count for 15 seconds instead of a full minute and the drop factor is on the bag.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
Well, 34 years ago, it's all we had.....You dated and timed the bag with your initials if the bag was to infuse in 12 hours you put a piece of cloth tape down the side of the bag and started with your start time and end time and the mid point in the middle. The you stood there with your second had and counted the drops.

DAF_60drops_ml.jpg

We were very excited to get the little dial regulators that fit on the IV line that you "dialed in the rate".

It's still a good skill to have. You can't just rely on having a pump. It's like learning how to do a manual BP. I have seen nursing students that didn't know how to do one of those.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

Those dial-a-flow devices are OK... but the few times I've ever had to use them, they rarely worked as advertised. Most of the units I had to use either broke or leaked. I just ended up calculating the gtt rate and kept a very close eye on that. I like having the pumps, but when they're running, I still count the gtts so that I know they're running at the rate they're supposed to. "Trust but verify" is a good thing even outside of politics. ;)

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It's still a good skill to have. You can't just rely on having a pump. It's like learning how to do a manual BP. I have seen nursing students that didn't know how to do one of those.
this is the rational of our instructors.
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Specializes in Med Surg.
this is the rational of our instructors.

They're right. Just a couple of weeks ago we had a heck of a time getting enough IV pumps for all our patients. A couple of us had infusions going to gravity. I hadn't calculated drip rtes since nursing school, but it cam back to me. It's definitely a good skill to have.

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I agree. I hope I'm not coming across as saying it is stupid. I think it is an excellent skill to have. I was just trying to figure out what exactly the question was asking. LOL I guess I figured it out. I got that one right and 4 out of 5 time tape questions right. Messed up the second time and it threw off the entire tape. Thankfully it was on paper and not a real patient!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
It's still a good skill to have. You can't just rely on having a pump. It's like learning how to do a manual BP. I have seen nursing students that didn't know how to do one of those.
Yes it is......and at one time it's all we had.....I too have seen new graduates that are lacking the simple basic skills like taking a B/P.

The dumming down of nursing school and it makes me sad.

LCinTraining no not at all........I knew what you were asking :)

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