canadian

Be very careful when 'sqeezing' buretrols. They are hard plastic and can rupture easy...trust me...I sqeezed once and chemo exploded all over my arm and the kid!!! Plus when you squeeze you allow air (only having gone through a sm filter I question the sterility espeially with high dextrose solutions) up into the IV bag. so just open the slide clamp and let the fluid drain into the buretrol....it is slow (especially at 3am) but way better for the kid. Here is my buretrol pet peeve. Lipids always seem to clog the filter which allows to regulate pressure out, therefore creating a vacumn in the buretrol. Any suggestions to avoid this (the manufacturer thinks we are nuts)

I sleep at night for 1 1/2 hours. As does every other nurse I work with. We bust out butts on day shift and only ever take two breaks on a 12 hour day. During the night we work hard, but barring anaphylaxtic drugs or blood admin we stagger these 1 1/2 hour breaks and sleep in recliners in our play room. How is it any different to be paid to eat, read magazines, or sleep on your break? You will find that most professions that work nights allow for breaks. Read the research, it is very healthy for you and increases safety.

We give iron in our tpn all the time....it just needs to be filtered below the lipid/trav y...special filters ours are blue....lipids and iron make nasty precipitates.....I guess we use lower doses in tpn so I've never seen any special precations for it.

I recently got an ultrascope (they are available on the web). Their thick tubing and insulated stethescope head is amazing. I find that by cutting off the cup part of the ear tips that I have found the perfect stethescope to work with my hearing loss.

We change our tubing q2units, but we flush between units (but not through the filter). It is the filter that needs to be changed not the tubing, but who wants to mess around changing filters (yucky biohazardy mess).