IV push med

[rnstudent00]

Need help!!!please

we just learned about push meds and I am confused about couple things

1.when pushing med through the extension set and the rate is 2.5 ml over 1 min

a) let's say,I am flushing the extension first and the extension set holds 1 ml

So,when I start my med push,should I start timing it after I have pushed 1 ml of the medication?

because I was told tht we have to time the flush after the med is given because there is still medication in the line .If that's the case then, after the first flush there would still be 1 ml of saline in the line .So I would need to Start timing after I have pushed 1 ml of med to clear the saline right?

2)If I am also timing the post flush for 1 min and there is still medication on the line,do I have push that for the same amount of time?if I do that then the total amount of time would be more than what the IV book says !!

Please clarify .I might be overthinking but I can't understand this concept

[OcMurse93]

I cant imagine a test question like this, but in case it is... theoretically, you would start timing it once the medication entered the patient, not the saline, so you would then include the last 1 ml flush to clear the line in the timeline with the 60 seconds of the medication.

In the real world... you just go slow and flush slow. If you push the med for 50 seconds or 70 seconds there literally will be no difference. The idea is that you dont slam the medication and push it in 2 seconds, or take so long it takes 5 minutes. You're kind of over thinking it. lol.

just remember that when you flush at the end, it is till going to have medication in the tubing, so go slow