Plum A+ hospira iv pumps

[wakaro]

Hey guys our hospital is gonna start using above iv pumps next week. Went to inservice but we could not figure how to give lets say boluses like ibsulin or heparin from existing bag. For example your pt is on iv insulin, next hour blood sugar mandate you to give 6 units bolus and continue with regular or another rate? How do you set this on iv pump cause it will not let us give a bolus?

[iheartprisma]

the hospital i used to work in used these. they super-suck at first and take a while to get used to.... but it get easier, i promise.

to give a bolus you have to attach a syringe to the secondary port on the cassette where a white cap is placed for packaging. then backprime from the bag into the syringe, however much you need. we used 10 ml syringes. sometimes you have to pull up on the syringe while backpriming at first, to get it started. then either unscrew the syringe and give through one of the blue ports close to the patient. or set secondary to desired ml and rate to 999. someone must have set a volume too high and given a huge bolus accidentally of insulin or something cuz we werent allowed to do it that way anymore.

let me know if that doesn't make sense....

good luck!

[wakaro]

Thanks iheartprisma.That sounds like a plan and really helpful.:)

[apocatastasis]

I usually just set the volume to be infused (VTBI) at whatever amount the bolus is (e.g. 6 mL for 6 units insulin, assuming a 1 unit per mL ratio). Run the pump at 999 mL/hr and it'll beep after VTBI is complete.

That way, don't have to worry about messing around with backpriming and the secondary line... and can go back to running whatever rate you need the pump to be set at.

[apocatastasis]

Also: for insulin and heparin, another trick I figured out was to set the rate equal to the volume to be infused so you don't accidentally overdose your patient, as one of my fellow nurses did and came back to a BG of 66. Could have been bad.

So if a pt's getting 10 units an hour of 1 unit per mL insulin... rate 10 mL/hr, VTBI 10 mL, if you double check your rate and volume the patient should get exactly what he needs and the pump will beep at 10 units.