Consent for albumin?

Specialties MICU

Published

An agency nurse in our ER wanted the doc to get a Blood Products Permission slip signed by a patient. Her reasoning was that albumin is a blood product. Anyone heard of this?

Specializes in Critical Care.

Yep, blood product and we have to get consent. And "they" want it on the IV pump with the preprogramed albumin mode, which doesn't really work well. Good grief. We just hang it as usual - free flow.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

no consent for albumin administration since came from pharmacy hospital a.

yes for consent in hospital b since came from blood bank.

check your facility p+p manual.

iv albumin - allnurses.com nursing for

nursesprocedure: blood factor and component replacements administration of

albumin (human) 25%, usp

albumin therapy - ask an expert

This came up today again in our unit. Someone had mentioned it before and sure enough when we looked it up in our policy on transfusions it is listed there. I have never seen anyone obtain a consent for it as we traditionally treated it as a medication received from pharmacy. You can bet I will be more aware of it now. I recommend checking deep into several policies and seeing what they say. If it is not addressed perhaps it should be taken to your policy and procedure committee to see what they think. You may want to even run it by your risk management department. I am sure they will have a take on the nurses administering what technically is a blood product and not obtaining consent for it. :uhoh3:

Specializes in ER/ICU/PACU/ Nurse Anesthetist.

I've never gotten consent before giving albumin.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

We are required to get blood product consent for albumin. Of course, the one consent is good for the entire hospitalization if the patient needs multiple albumin infusions (which is most of the time), so maybe some of you are giving subsequent albumin infusions so a consent would not be needed for that particular infusion?

Also in some critical care areas, isn't a blood/blood product consent one of the forms the pt or family has to sign (or refuse to sign as the case may be) on the pt's admission to that unit? (I don't work ICU so I apologize for my ignorance. Also for intruding on many of your threads; they are just very interesting :) )

Specializes in Cardiac.
... so maybe some of you are giving subsequent albumin infusions so a consent would not be needed for that particular infusion?)

Whether they received prior transfusions or not, if consent is needed for a product, the RN MUST check for a consent prior to giving it. So at least a check on the consent in the chart would be required. You would need to lay actual eyes on the consent form if it was required to be obtained.

But, no. We don't require consent for albumin where I work.

Also in some critical care areas, isn't a blood/blood product consent one of the forms the pt or family has to sign (or refuse to sign as the case may be) on the pt's admission to that unit? (I don't work ICU so I apologize for my ignorance. Also for intruding on many of your threads; they are just very interesting :) )

Nope, not for my hospital. We ask for blood consents when the situation arises if we can, or give it emergently if necessary.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

that makes sense cardiacrn... I did figure people would make sure a consent was in place before giving anything that needed such, so... I guess that was a stupid question. thanks!!

Specializes in SICU.

I've never had to get consent for albumin. It comes from our pharmacy, not the blood bank.

I guess the best reference would be your facility's P & P manual.

Specializes in ICU (1 year).

If there is a concern about the use of albumin due to concent or religious beliefs, there is always the option of using Hespan. The additional benifit of using hespan is that is it very cheap to use. I read that 1 250CC bottle of albumin costs about $250 while a single bag of Hespan is only about $25. Here is a chance for nurses to advocate for our patients.

Specializes in 11 years oncology, 8 years ICU.

RUNurse,

good point, reguarding Hespan. Our sugeons like Hespan, our Pulmonologists like albumin with lasix chaser. No consent needed for either.

Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

Many of the CV surgeons i've worked with won't use Hespan as they feel it increases bleeding.

RUNurse,

good point, reguarding Hespan. Our sugeons like Hespan, our Pulmonologists like albumin with lasix chaser. No consent needed for either.

Specializes in ICU,CCU,MICU.

Interesting points you all have made. I have never even thought about it. We do not require blood form consent for albumin. I think I will keep an eye on this however with patients who refuse blood products. I think they have a right to know where it comes from in that instance.:up:

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