Please stop! Little things that are just bad practice.

Nurses Professionalism

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Little things that are just bad practice.

Like looping IV tubing back into itself (against our policy, and they went to great lengths to hand out caps to carry in pockets). And not even cleaning off the port you looped it into!

Disconnecting a running IV to take a pt to the bathroom.. and just leaving the bare end hanging from the pole. Don't interrupt IVFs ! Take the blinking pump with you!

What are yours?

Specializes in Emergency Room.

I'm sorry to be so ignorant but I never knew it was required to piggy back potassium with ns going in the piv. In the ER, When I've given iv k+ , it's over at least 4 hours in a large bore (preferably 18g or larger in the ac).

If I had a pt complain about pain (as long as the iv is good and no signs of issues) the ER docs just advised to reduce the rate until the pt no longer has pain.

I cant any seem to find any resources that state it has to be piggied on a ns infusion. I even contacted our nurse educator and she hadn't heard of that as well.

http://www.surgicalcriticalcare.net/Guidelines/electrolyte_replacement.pdf

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Specializes in Med/surg, Onc.
I'm sorry to be so ignorant but I never knew it was required to piggy back potassium with ns going in the piv. In the ER, When I've given iv k+ , it's over at least 4 hours in a large bore (preferably 18g or larger in the ac).

If I had a pt complain about pain (as long as the iv is good and no signs of issues) the ER docs just advised to reduce the rate until the pt no longer has pain.

I cant any seem to find any resources that state it has to be piggied on a ns infusion. I even contacted our nurse educator and she hadn't heard of that as well.

http://www.surgicalcriticalcare.net/Guidelines/electrolyte_replacement.pdf

I'm sure it varies by location and policy. We Y it in with NS running as well if we have no option but to give it IV. I'm glad most of my patients have ports and it's less of an issue.

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Or programming a new 1L bag as "900" ml's, so it is alarming empty when there's another 150 ml's in there. Those bags are overfilled by over 50 ml's. I program my 1L bags for 1050ml.

Funny, this is MY pet peeve. If you run a 1000 bag at 1000 (ours don't have an extra 50), then the line runs dry and I have to disconnect, prime it again and reconnect. This is a waste of time and also an infection control issue. I always put my 1000 bags at 960.

Another pet peeve is when nurses don't piggyback. Why set up your antibiotic to a large mainline?Then I take over the shift and have to switch them back on their regular fluids, switching to another main line, opening the pump, AND reprogramming the pump?! How annoying! If it were piggybacked, I wouldn't have to waste all that time, not to mention connecting and reconnecting different lines is not a good idea from an infection control standpoint.

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