rofner

Believe it or not, it was the infection control nurse that told me to reuse the single use vial. I know - amazing. And she told it to me in a voice that called me an idiot for even questioning her. lol

Ok, so here's the update. I worked on the weekend, no admins around, and informed my supervisor of the dilemma. She agreed with me that I couldn't save the unused portion of the vial. However, she told the next nurse coming on shift that she should draw up two doses using the same needle and save the second dose to use later. This was wrong information. All this came about because the on-site pharmacy that our facility used is being transitioned over to an off-site pharmacy. The new pharmacy is using a different brand of Lasix than the on-site pharmacy. The on-site pharmacist has been coming in during this transition phase and I went to her with the entire story over the weekend. She placed a call to the manufacturer of the second brand of Lasix who sent her a letter that she then distributed to all of the admins, including the Administrator of the nursing home. The letter said that not only should the vial be entered only one time, but that the drug should only be considered stable for one hour once drawn up. I'd like to thank everyone that replied for their support. I feel vindicated but also feel terrible that it took a relatively new nurse to do the right thing by my patients (got my license in 8/2009) and that so many others were prepared to not only use this drug in the wrong way but that so many other nurses were prepared to go along with it although they knew it was wrong. I guess this was a wake-up call for me. Anyway, thanks again :)

Thanks so much!! I will definitely advise as to their response. I'm not on duty again until the weekend so if you don't hear from me for a few days you'll know why. I can't express how much I appreciate your replies. I had no idea who to turn to with this ...

Ah!! That should get their attention!!

Thank you :)

Thanks for your reply. I will definitely contact the pharmacy and see what they say next time I'm on duty. Again, thanks for replying. I've lost sleep with worry over this!

Help!! My patient receives 1 ml IV Lasix x3/day. The institution recently changed pharmacies and instead of 1 ml vials, we now have 2 ml single use vials. Since the patient's dose is 1 ml, I was told to save the vial with remaining 1 ml for the next dose. According to the CDC, this is not proper practice. I have sent the director of nursing the link to the CDC page but anticipate being told to continue using the single dose vial as a multi-dose vial. Should I refuse to do this and, if so, how do I refuse and still keep my job? Help!!