If you draw up a dose of flu vax from a multidose vial but don't use it at the particular clinic where you are assigned that day, will it be safe to use it (still sterile, still potent) at your next clinic if you refrigerate it per company P & P?
The syringe was sterile to begin with and you know that you did not contaminate the needle, cap, barrel, etc.
The syringe, open vials, unopened vials have all been in your possession and control at all times, so you are 100% certain that they are fine.
Once in a while, a patient decides not to get the shot after it has been drawn up, so we occasionally have a drawn-up, unused dose.
Rather than waste the dose, may we safely leave it in the syringe, take care of it as described above, and use it within the next 1 - 4 days?
What about returning the unused dose to the vial it came from? This would be done as soon as it was determined that the dose would not be used at the clinic for that patient or another who comes in within a few hours. Same questions about potency and sterility.
Thanks for any help. If you know of references I can read, thanks. And if your facility has policy about this, I'd like to know that, too. If there are references about potency and sterility along with the policies, please include those.
Accessing the vial has the potential introduce bacteria which can then proliferate, so once it's accessed the clock starts in the amount of time it's 'good' for until it has a few thousand bacteria instead of just a few.
MunoRN, RN
8,058 Posts
Accessing the vial has the potential introduce bacteria which can then proliferate, so once it's accessed the clock starts in the amount of time it's 'good' for until it has a few thousand bacteria instead of just a few.