kawatts22

Yes, I was always told different things too! That's why I always ran them separately. I use a resource now called micromedics, I believe. I breaks it down to every strength of vanco and zosyn together. The most common ones we use at my facility the website said was compatible. I still have yet to run them together, still makes me nervous! Thanks for the input!

The cats name is amazing! And it's weird maybe it's just my floor, but no one ever runs zosyn and vanco together! I did learn recently (only been a nurse for a year) the strengths we use are compatible, but there are some strengths that aren't. That's just why I used it as an example. Thanks for your input on flushing the tubing!

Good point. When the secondary med is done running there is some still sitting in the chamber. When I back prime to flush it, the chamber fills with saline and mixes with the med and push it back into the med bag. I guess I was just questioning if this was sufficient enough to rid all of the med in the chamber. And putting it in that perspective it would seem like it is sufficient enough. Good point. Thanks!

When running a medication like zosyn, at my hospital, we set up a primary normal saline flush bag of 250 mls. So when the med is done running the infusion pump is set to flush the primary line with 30-50 MLS of saline. My question is if I would have another medication such as a vancomycin strength that is not compatible, should I back prime the secondary tubing to rid of the incompatible zosyn or clamp it off, disconnect it, and get new secondary tubing for the incompatible vancomycin. I was taught both ways in nursing school.

Hi, I'm new to Allnurses! I'm currently working on my residency project and my hospital has no policy in place for the use of secondary IV tubing. I was looking for input or for resources about flushing the secondary tubing for incompatible medications. At this point some nurses on my floor just back flush the secondary tubing with the primary fluid (which is usually sodium chloride). I was wondering if this is best practice if the meds are not compatible and if we should be changing out the secondary tubing when administering a different medication. Thank you!