i.care

Thanks for all your responses. I am currently working with both bolus and pump fed patients but to be honest it's still all a bit new to me ! The new product they were showing me was a low cost electronic gravity fed flow controller aimed at overnight / continuous feeders. They mentioned two options, one that was set at a fixed flow rate and another that offered limited adjustment to different rates. They were asking me what were the best rates to select and I wasn't sure. This thing was disposable after 6 months too !! PS. Thx for the link to Oley, that's a great website !!

Hi all, I have worked in a carehome facility for a while now and have some patients that unfortuntaely have to be fed through tubes for various reasons. I was recently approached by a local company who is developing an Enteral Feeding flow rate controller device and they got me thinking..... They were proposing a to do a flow rate controller with settings on it that allowed the carer to change the rate of feeding from 60, 120, 180, 240, 300, 360 mls / hr. To be honest I thought this was OK, I rarely need to accurately set my flow rates for these patients. I just stick it in at a safe speed that they seem comfortable with. Does any one else care for people like this? Do you find that you change the rate of delivery often or once you have something that works you rarely change it? What happens if you come back to your patient and there has been a blockage? How do you recover and catch up with their nutrient in take ? Would love to hear your thoughts on this so I can feed it all back to this company !!!

Our clinicians always want compression bandages on chronic venous ulcers but we seem to get alot of wet ulcers which soak the bandages within the day !!! This means we're forever changing them, anyone got any ideas for helping me to manage this ???

Great, thanks for all your comments. The company I work at is thinking about designing a NPWT vaccuum pump and starting to make them. It's great to hear that you all see benifits in using them. What features are helpful to you when you're using these ?

Hi, I am interested in learning more about Negative pressure wound therapy. Does it really improve the healing of open wounds / sores ? Does anyone have experience with this type of therapy ? Is there any clinical data to suggest such ? Apparently it speeds up healing and can mean less dressing changes... It's all new to me and I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

Yep, I've seen them before, they were a step in the right direction but still didn't give that greater acuracy. The device they're working is like an automatic roller clamp, it has a digital screen and buttons...it's looks pretty cool too !!

I have been asked to help a small New Zealand company design new type of IV fluid flow controller. Apparently it's quite different to a pump but it does pretty much the same in a simplified way. The device is for general ward use especially focusing on post-Op recovery and general rehydration. I just thought I'd list it on here to see what the rest of you think the ideal device like this would be to help make our lives easier. They want to make it real simple to use for the majority of what we do..... Any ideas anyone?????

We are currently thinking about getting some IV pumps in our place of work. What features are good to look for on these things? What do you use the most? What features does the ideal IV pump have? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated !!!

Does anyone ever set these things using a VTBI over a time period and never entering a flowrate?

So I'm learning about these IV pumps... Most of what I'm delivering is non-critical, Saline solutions, Blood, etc... and almost always on the ward. When I'm using these things all I'm really interested in is setting a mls/hr flow rate and letting the bag run through. I don't want the added complication of having to set Volume to be infused (VTBI) or any of the other stuff. Does anyone else find that they don't use the 'OTHER STUFF' ? Why would I need to set VTBI aswell?

Does anyone else have issues with the Roller clamp being inaccurate when administering IV Solutions? When you set a flowrate by gtts counting and come back to it half an hour later it's changed. How much time is wasted spent resetting these things?

Thanks everyone, I guess I did mean that pumps were 'overkill' rather than complex. Most of the time I'm just using the Alaris pump for very simple rehydration activities.

I love the control a pump gives you, it just takes me ages to set the things. Most of the time all I'm interested in is setting the Flowrate and the volume to be infused (VTBI), the rest of the functionality is just there to confuse me.

Don't you all find there's a shortage of pumps in your hospitals, I can never find one...... and roller clamps lose their accuracy almost immediately after I've set them..... hhmmmm...thanks for all your responses!

Why isn't there a device that's easier to use than a Pump for simple patient rehydration? Nurses srtuggle to get the accuracy they require with a Roller clamp so the next option is a Pump. Using a pump is incredibly complex for this simple task ?