iv therapy

[Alana211]

At the facility I work at LPN's are aloud to do IV administration on peripherals and central lines. I have come on the shift more than a few times with the leur lock hub off the end of the piccs and central lines. I have taken these nurses aside and shownthem the correct way but there is one nurse that is consistently having problems. Last week one of my patients lines was left open to air because the hub was off, another had saline running with the tubing pushed in the end of the hickman and there was no hub at the end of that one either. Earlier that day she told me that a pt had blood all over the front of her that was coming from her central line after she had done her infusion. I have told my unit manager about this every time there has been an occurence but this nurse is still doing infusions. That seems very dangerous. The unit manager is going to send her to an IV training class but its not for another month.

I thought LPN's weren't supposed to do infusions...or does this just depend on the facility's protcol?

[Lorie P.]

wow how can they let her continue like this?

where i work, lpn's can infuse with picc's & cl's only after we have been through training and then the iv therapy rn, signs off our skills after we prove by return demonstration that we have been trained correctly not before.

as far as lpn's being able to infuse, it depends on the p & p of the facility where they work at.

sounds like this nurse needs major training and an uor done each and every time an occurance has happened.

[angel_nurse_83]

HI,

It is within our scope of practice, and of course we still need to look at the facility protocol... IN my hospital we are allowed to do it... but however some RPN's are not doing them... why? They do not feel comfortable and they don't do them often enough to feel as if they were competant.. As we all know it is not just the skill of the procedure .. It is within our repsonsibility if we choose to do those to know the potential implications of what might happen.. side effects for example.. being able to monitor the patient and intervene if this happens to occur...

If I was you I'd clearly suggest that the nurse that continues to do this to eliminate this from her practice due to the fact that she is obviously not competent in the procedure... hence putting the Pt. in the harms way as well as her own licence...

Best of luck..

[sonja77]

at the facility i work at lpn's are aloud to do iv administration on peripherals and central lines.

... but there is one nurse that is consistently having problems.

i really don't think that the problem is that lvns are allowed to do iv administration. the problem is this particular nurse!!

i am an lvn and the facility i currently work in allows me to do iv admin. on peripheral ivs and on a cl if there is fluid running (i just can't access a port directly). the facility i used to work at also allowed me to access cl and draw blood off a cl, do iv pushes on a cl, ...

i've never had a problem with a cl nor did i ever leave a line open.

[Alana211]

sonja-

I did not say that the problem was lpns doing the infusions. I did ask whether or not they were supposed to do them or if it depended upon the facility's protocol. In nursing school i was told that LPN's dont do infusions that is why i was wondering.

[mianders, RN]

At our facility LVN' can administer everything except blood and certain high risk medications. I does sound like the problem is with a particular nurse and not LVN's in general. I know some LVN's that I would trust better than some RN's. I think it is a training issue.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

i think this LPN may just not be competent on IV therapy...not a problem with LPN's in general. every place i have worked, LPNs can start IVs and maintain drips except for blood or vasoactives.