Hi all, I am an experienced nurse, but new to chemo infusion and I have two practice questions for those with ore experience.
1.When a patient is having a true hypersensitivity reaction, obviously I stop the chemo immediately, but when I clamp that off and open the line with NS, it’s still pushing some of the chemo in first. Do any of you keep a separate primed NS bag as a backup and if they react just disconnect the chemo set and attach the pure NS line instead? I’ve gotten so many different answers from co-workers and observed varying practices so I am curious as to what you all do.
2. Prior to giving a chemo prone to HSR, many of the nurses who have precepted me will make the rate 999 for 20-40cc to get it closer to the patient before starting. I do this with blood but it makes me nervous bc I can't really tell where the chemo starts (even though it's obviously around 20-40cc for the remainder of the line). Is this common practice?
TIA!