please answer this question about traction!

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What are you supposed to do if a patient is in traction and they slide down in bed so that their feet are resting on the foot of the bed?

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Specializes in Trauma, Neuro, M&S ICU.

don't let time be the factor!!! Get your ADN (RN). Work in a hospital as a tech and that will defiately determine if you want to keep going. That way during pre-reqs you can move ahead or back out. LVN is cool and a little faster, but RN will pay more and give you more freedom!

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Remove the weights from the traction and then give your patient a boost... then carefully reapply the weights making sure there not touchign the ground

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
What are you supposed to do if a patient is in traction and they slide down in bed so that their feet are resting on the foot of the bed?

Get the patient pulled back up in the bed.

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Remove the weights from the traction and then give your patient a boost... then carefully reapply the weights making sure there not touchign the ground

I was told to never, ever, ever remove the weights unless the doctor ordered them to be taken off.

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Remove the weights from the traction and then give your patient a boost... then carefully reapply the weights making sure there not touchign the ground

Never, ever remove the weights.

Make sure that they are hanging freely and are not tangled and pull the patient back up.

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We had an inservice with the orthpedic surgeon... and he said to remove the weights and just replace them how they were. That if you try to boost the pt with them still on... your gonna pul on the leg/hip... and hurt the patient not and the boot would not be firm against the heal. Am I mistaken? or is this just this physicians preference. I'm talking about bucks traction (not sure if that makes a difference).

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
i'm talking about bucks traction (not sure if that makes a difference).

i repeat. . .get the patient pulled back up in the bed. stand on one side of the bed and take the patient by the shoulder; have someone else stand on the other side and take the patient by the shoulder, or have the patient use the overhead trapeze; ask the patient to bend their good leg up and assist you by pushing with that leg; on the count of three pull the patient up in the bed. you do not need to take the weights off. as long as you move the patient in a steady manner against the traction you are not going to injure the patient.

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Specializes in Oncology, Triage, Tele, Med-Surg.

I don't have much ortho experience, but we've ad a run on hip fractures recently and I asked this same question. I got two different answers from two different nurses - one said ya gotta pull them up with the traction on - patient HATED that. Another nurse, who does a lot of ortho said no, you can release it long enough to pull the pt. up, so that you're not pulling on the leg. When the ortho guy came on the floor he said it was fine (wrote the order) for bucks traction to be used prn pt. comfort. Pt chose to do without, & doc was fine with that. Maybe it depends on the situation?

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

the purpose of buck's traction, which is a skin traction, is to put a counter pull on the lower leg to keep the hip muscles from spasming, and therefore, relieve pain. when the trochanter or the hip breaks, the muscles around it contract and spasm. muscle spasms hurt. muscle spasms, as any runner can tell you, are relieved by s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g the muscles. therefore, buck's traction is an attempt to relieve the pain as well as kind of pull the hip into some normal alignment until it can be surgically corrected. the weights can be removed carefully for short periods of time if the patient is comfortable. buck's traction is only a temporary measure. the patient will eventually have to go to surgery for a hip pinning or an arthroplasty.

skeletal traction is different. pins have been inserted in the broken ends of long bones so traction can be applied to them. when the traction is applied, it is to keep the ends of the broken bones in alignment. you do not want to take the weights off. the purpose of this traction is for proper bone alignment so the fractured bone ends heal in correct alignment.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

When we had ortho pts on our floor we were taught to remove the weights, pull the pt up and make sure they were aligned properly then reapply the weights.

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Is the census bucks can remove wghts temporalily... and skeleton never remove?

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