IV hydralazine

[norabow]

How soon after administering do you take BP again? Thanks!

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

The onset of action for IV hydralazine is something like 10-20 minutes, so 10 minutes would probably work. :)

[shiccy]

I do 20 min for most BP meds that are IV. Sometimes it's 30 min, but this will ensure the med is totally in effect so you don't OVER correct the issue(s).

[rn undisclosed name]

Does your hospital have a policy about this med? The reason I ask is that I worked at a hospital with an insane policy on this med. We had to retake the bp in 5 minutes and q5 minutes x3, then q15 min x3, etc. It was ridiculous esp if a pt was not on a tele monitor. I never really thought the med was all that effective and would beg the docs to do something else. I got my way 90% of the time. Usually the reason people needed it was because they initially came in septic and now it was resolved. Well, without their normal bp meds, their bp will rebound to their normal. I had a doc once tell me it was a quick fix. Ummm, I'm sorry but no it is NOT a quick fix. The better fix would be to restart their meds.

Otherwise without a specific policy the above posters are correct and what I had done prior to working at this facility.

[BAMARN09]

I actually had to do this yesterday...I agree with that your policy ..thats not even a policy at our hospital, it just makes me feel better i would just set the BP to take q5mins

[azhiker96, BSN, RN]

In PACU I prefer to use Labetalol if their pulse will support it. It seems to act much faster. If they're brady though then you need to use hydralazine. I recheck every 5 minutes until I get SBP