Arduy

Hello JennyinLD, in our general surgery unit we occasionally administer Ferric gluconate intravenously. This drug is known to be compatible with normal saline only. We don't have a protocol for it, but: We always administer this drug diluted in 100/250 ml of NS with very low flow rate (we haven't had any adverse reactions from patients). The patients shouldn't go walking around the ward, but stay at their bed during the infusion (hypotension...). As with every important situation (high alert drugs, patient returning from OR, etc.) I'd have a basal blood pressure taken, before initiating the therapy, and the patient should be informed about symptoms that can occur with this therapy , and to call if something's strange; the most important to watch out about are difficulty breathing, rash, classical anaphylaxis symptoms. Iron IV is a classical vein irritant because of it's alkalinity, a slow rate of infusion helps with hemodilution, where a CVC is not present. If there is hypotension a physician could decide to reduce the rate or temporarily stop the infusion, or use blood volume expanders if he wants to elevate the BP. If there's an anaphylaxis reaction the therapy has to be discontinued and hypersensitivity treated. Hope these few points are of help to you.

Amiodarone is one other drug incompatible with NaCl solutions, and absorbs to PVC. Here in Italy we use a drug that is called FOY (gabesato mesilato) to neutralize pancreatic enzymes in acute pancreatitis that is also incompatible with NaCl solutions.

Hello. I only found that there's quite a pH difference between the two drugs (Benadryl=5-6 and Decadron=7-8.5...it could mean something), and that both Decadron and Benadryl are incompatible with a hugh list of drugs. However, there's conflicting compatibility information between the two drugs. Benadryl has a sure incompatibility with another cortisone-based drug which is Solu-Cortef. Since there ARE different conclusions about their compatibility, I'd would stay safe (speaking about the patient) and administer the two drugs in different syringes, and two different places.

A very big thank you for helping me out. Unfortunately the RN student doesn't Know the English language well enough to understand it. I already had to translate some scientific papers for her and will again if she'd need some other ones translated. I will show her all your responses and make sure there's an understanding. I think "we" now have enough information to study and learn. Thanks again.

Thanks, I'll try some more times with Google. The most interesting articles that I've encountered have to be payed for, and that makes me give up. Other articles (so many of them...) are not quite centered on the nurses role. I'll try to help her out with what I've got.

Hello to all. I'd very much appreciate any help you can give me. This is the situation: a student nurse for her graduation thesis (RN) ask me to find some material that addresses the issue of what a nurse can do regarding the prevention of delirium in the ICU Unit. I found a lot of medical related stuff, but very little regarding what nurses can, and should do, based on scientific evidence. Are there any guidelines, protocols, procedures, policies that could be taken in to account? Thank you for your help, and time.

Do they teach suturing at school? It's not an RN's task. You could learn to do it though.

Sometimes we use D10 solution with 10 units of regular (rapid) insulin in it to lower blood potassium levels quite rapidly.