many drugs one syringe

[NewNurseAlert]

as a student and intern i always pulled my IV pushes into different syringes, flushing between each and every one. Now I am on the floor and see nurses mix IV pushes. This would be more time effective and reduce risk of infection, but it's important to know what's OK to mix and not mix. Morphine, ativan, lasix, phenergan ect...I never mix antibiotics with anything, and believe protonix is incompatible with alot of infusions.

[JessicaSN]

We have an online system called Micromedix that will allow a nurse to enter multiple medicines and see if they are IV compatible. There are only 2 that I regularly mix: Dilaudid and Phenergan. It really doesn't take that much more time to flush in between IV pushes. I would also never taken any one else's word that certain drugs are compatible. Look it up yourself. Call the pharmacy if you still have questions.

If I already have an infusion going (not counting 0.9% NS) and need to push something, I pause the infusion, take the tubing off the IV site, flush/push drug/flush, then reconnect the tubing and resume the infusion.

[mudd68]

You are right. This is not best practice. IV meds are supposed to be pushed over certain time frames, and the RN is supposed to be observing the pt's response. If the pt starts to have a negative reaction, with more than one medication in the syringe, how is the causitive agent going to identified? Does your facility have any written policies on IV therapy?

[NewNurseAlert]

I'm pretty sure we do have a policy, and it probably defers to micromedix.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

If I'm pushing the drugs I want to give them separately to distinguish between reactions, if the patient has one, and to have each one as dilute as possible. Probably 90% of the time mixing them in the same syringe wouldn't make any difference, but it's no more work for me to use different syringes.

[meandragonbrett]

I only mix narcotics and benzos that are compatible. Everything else has it's own syringe.

[NurseStephRN]

i draw everything up in its own syringe, just in case the medicines i'm giving are incompatible to be drawn up together.

*as a side note, one day i was reading the insert for protonix iv and it's supposed to be drawn with a filtered needle! i had no idea! to be honest, i don't remember the reason why the manufacturer says to use the filtered needle, but ever since that day i've always remember to do so.

[NewNurseAlert]

I double checked the morphine and ativan should be alright, so long as it goes slow. I had a pt that needed this almost every hour so i felt pretty comfortable. some people need reglan and opiates around the clock so i was wondering if that would be alright.

[KungFuFtr]

I double checked the morphine and ativan should be alright, so long as it goes slow. I had a pt that needed this almost every hour so i felt pretty comfortable. some people need reglan and opiates around the clock so i was wondering if that would be alright.

I wouldn't give Reglan and opiates simultaneously. I like to give my antiemetics a few minutes prior to my opiates. I also tend to push Reglan very slowly....But that's just me.