SN22RN

Thank you all so much! Makes sense why my instructors are not concerned with pushing the PIV harder...But why do they teach us in school not to push on a difficult PIV because it will cause a blood clot to dislodge and it will kill your patient! Nursing school is so stressful!! Everytime I leave clinical I think I killed my patient...... It's not a good feeling.

How quickly does a Blood Clot travel? If a blood clot was dislodged during a peripheral IV flush, how quickly/ how long would it take for the patient to possibly die from a dislodged clot? Can they die in seconds, mins, hours etc? Thanks!

Have you ever had the experience of having a hard time flushing a peripheral IV site on a pt? If so, what did you/your instructor do about it?

Hello, I was wondering how often or common is it to dislodge a clot from flushing IPIDs? I'm a nursing student and I've had a couple of patient's that I've had a hard time flushing their ipids. I would let my instructors know and they would come in and just push harder and flush the IV. What I think in my head is (OMG, what about dislodging a clot!). I had another instructor tell me to push on the flush (and I pushed some but I didn't push THAT hard) so I told her I can't push anything through. So, she told me to pull back on the syringe a little and then try flushing. So, I pulled back on the syringe a little bit then was able to flush the ipid. What's everyone else's experience with flushing? Do you push harder on ones that seem "stuck." It scares me to do that, but my instructors don't seem as concerned as I do?! If someone were to dislodge a clot from flushing a peripheral IV site, how quickly can someone die after dislodging the clot?