Binkey BSN

Working for home care, I once had a woman asking for a refill of her son's IV meds..."He is out of Gancy-clover" "Can you send some more? She meant Ganciclovir. DD

Yes.. You would flush both lumens and many protocols delinelate a q 12 hour flush. So, If it is a open ended IV catheter, both lumens would be flushed q 12 with saline and heparin. However if it is a groshong, the lumen that you will use for IVAB wi...

As an educator for infusion therapy, I encourage the use of warmth for an infiltrated IV site, but only if you have an isotonic solution or you have had an extravasation of a vinca-alkaloid. Everything else should have ice as you want to decrease th...

INS discourages the use of midclavicular IV catheters.. Not midlines. In years past, midclavicular IV catheters (ones that terminate in the subclavian vein, or midway below the clavicle) were placed in large numbers especially in homecare, however, t...

While it is true that blood can be drawn from A PICC, it is important to remember that some will give you a better blood returns than others. A 3 FR PICC is usually unreliable in yielding a return due to its smaller size. 4 or 5 Fr PICC"S will do b...

Kevin, One way is to contact your local pharmacies and ask them if they hire RN's who have good IV skills (because they will want you to have that as a prereq). Omnicare is one company that services LTC facilities and they have nurses who are on call...

A midline IV catheter should terminate before the axillary vein in the upper aspect of the upper arm. Therefore, though it is in a bigger vein than that which is in your forarms, it still doesn't have the blood flow that will yield a good return, in...

Dayshiftnurse, #1- As long as your not needing to infuse that blood in a short time frame, you can infuse it via a 22g 1" IV catheter over a three to four hour time frame. Then, that same line can be used to administer plts or albumin after line flus...

I too wonder why they weren't accessing the Port in the hospital, and then I'd wonder why she didn't demand it be done in that setting. Another question is "how long has it been since it had been flushed?" My concern is that if it has been a while, ...

My first thought is: Is this a pt who is immunocomprimised? If so, he or she may be more prone to infections, however, that doesn't necessarily correlate to an increased frequency of drsg changes to the PICC catheter. Each time you do a sterile drsg ...

We teach our students that if the catheter is over 3" in length, use no less than a 10cc syringe to ascertain patency. DD

Kathy76, Like many abbreviations, KVO can be problematic. KVO can be 0.2cc/hr or up to 50cc/hr. Normally, unless the facility that you work for has a set flow rate for what KVO is for that institution, you shouldn't accept that abbreviation as an ord...

Redhotnurse, The guidleines that you need are spelled out by Infusion Nurses Society - They are a national society which many in the legal profession use as a "benchmark" as to standards of practice for infusion therapy. You may find them at ins1.or...

Dear RNKC25, If your brother had TPN infusing via one lumen and continuous Lasix gtt via a peripheral line, then they were probably using the second lumen of the PICC for all the ancillary meds (IVP meds and IVAB). In the hospital did he have two si...

Any catheter that is centrally placed (tip in SVC) should yield a blood return upon gentle aspiration of the syringe. However, if it is a PICC, that catheter should be a 4 French or greater as the 3 French's inner lumen is such that it doesn't yield...

Adriadawn, Try finding an Omnicare pharmacy in your area. Many of these pharmacys have infusion nurses that do just that... go around and start IV's. They place peripherals, midlines and PICC lines mainly in the geriatric population. They are the l...

BLSMOM, Ideally, you want the patient to be on treatment for the infection and then once the patient is no longer febrile, place the line. In other words, place a short term periph until the above occurs, then place the PICC. What you don't want is t...

Well, If you are taking it next week, it doesn't give you time to heed my recommendation, which is using the tapes that INS sells. They were important to me when I took it, particularily when studying QI sections. Are you an INS member? The publica...

That is the exact reason that you can't thread it... This breaks the seal and allows you to thread it off. DD

SG... Have you tried twisting the hub ( the colored portion ) prior to insertion? Twist the hub one way, and then twist it back into place and insert. Hope that helps.. DD

I am unsure where you are finding that info, but here in the USA, Zosyn can be given IVPB with LR, however the warnings are for reconstitution, not administration. LR will cause Zosyn to degrade after 8 hours. But, if you have reconstituted it with ...

The Purple Power PICCs are open ended IV catheters which require Saline and Heparin to maintain patency. However, if you are using an injection cap such as the CLC 2000 (an injection cap that converts an open-ended IV catheter to one that needs a sal...

There are different factors associated with chemical incompatibility: 1. Drug Concentration 2. pH of the solution 3. Volume of solution 4. Length of time that the medications are in contact 5. Temperature (some medications can't be exposed to cold t...

Erwende, A couple of things may help in addition to what other post have already stated; 1. Make sure that when you are removing the IV catheter that you remove it flush with the skin. Do not hold it up at an angle. 2.Remember the clotting cascade.....

To ascertain patency of a vascular access device, or a patency of any catheter over 3" in length, always use a 10cc syringe with the appropriate amt of saline. Smaller syringes will generate PSI's of over 60. If there was a blood clot at catheter's ...