IV Site Prep

[NeuroNP]

How many of you consistantly prep your IV sites with Betadine (or something equivalent) rather than just EtOH? I used to work with a nurse who said that she'd read somewhere that EtOH prep was almost useless so she always used Betadine unless allergic. Just wondering what the general thinking is.

[abundantjoy07, RN]

In our training of starting IV's we use Betadine.

[jeepgirl, LPN, NP]

Betadine then alcohol. And no fair blowing on the betadine to help it dry. Yes, I was actually told this.

Blowing on it would be an infection control issue!

We use chloraprep one step on our patients, except if they are under the age of 6 months then its alcohol only.

[Haunted]

Most facilitiesw I work at here in OC use a pre packaged sponge called a chloroprep. You snap the hand grip together to dispense the antiseptic and sponge it over the site. It dries clear and quick. I also use alchy preps to look for a vein.

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

And I was taught Betadine first then alcohol. Weird.

steph

Heh.. me too. It's what we do at dialysis. Wonder why these folks can't get some kind of consensus on this stuff?

[CA CoCoRN, RN]

How many of you consistantly prep your IV sites with Betadine (or something equivalent) rather than just ? I used to work with a nurse who said that she'd read somewhere that ETOH prep was almost useless so she always used Betadine unless allergic. Just wondering what the general thinking is.

ETOH, refers to ethanol...that is drinking alcohol. :rotfl: Iso-OH is Isopropyl alcohol which is what "modern medicine" uses for site preps. They used to use ETOH in the old west. :chuckle

anyway...we use Iso-OH. We were supposed to go to chlorohex swabs and we received an inservice on them...but they haven't been implemented.