Labeling syringes?

[bri2012]

when drawing up medications do you label the syringe with the doctors order or whats on the medication bottle??

[cndn_grl08]

In my hospital, it's a HUGE thing to label syringes, it's a big no no to not label them. I know what's in the syringe but if another nurse comes by they might not know. For example, if another nurse walks by and the patient has respiratory depression, they can look and see the patient is getting morphine and go from there. Also, if the IV pump fails and it's not all infused, another nurse can look at it and look at the order and know that it's correct and can restart it if need be. You never know what may happen.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Funny how a lot of you say u never label syringes.

We were told that it's a major jchao (sp) violation if you don't so in clinical we have to.

So is this true??

Yeah, I was told that any syringe with a med in it, has to be labelled, even if it does not leave your sight.

I generally take the vial with me and pull it up a the BS. At my one job, we kept insulin in the pyxis, and I would draw it up there and take the syringe to the room. I would pull it up and I would label it "J. Smith, Novolog insulin, 6 units."

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I never label a syringe because I never have more than one in my hand at a time. I take the empty medicine vial with me when I administer the med. If there is more than one med, I draw them up at the bedside.

I am horrified when I see new nurses draw up insulin/lasix/morphine/...and label them all at once. Placing them together in a row. It's not only unsafe, but against policy. I stopped pointing out the danger when the newer nurses looked at me like I was a dinosaur.

I HAVE worked with someone who pushed Insulin, instead of NS. Seen someone flush with a syringe of lasix instead of NS.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

My only issue with drawing up medication at the bedside is that in some cases you have to break policy to do so.

Example: when we remove a narcotic from the pyxis the pyxis requires a waste ID of another RN. So we are supposed to pull out the med, draw it up and waste it in front of that RN, who then signs in the pyxis that it was wasted. If you draw the med at the bedside, the other RN either has to follow you and watch or you have to go back and waste it in the pyxis later.

Insulin doses require verification with two nurses. So again, you either have to draw the insulin up with a nurse watching, or go find another nurse once you've drawn up the dose.