Question about IVPB!!

[cogtags, BSN, RN]

Hey yall, I have a dumb question. Please forgive me if I am overlooking something obvious. We had pretty much zero exposure to IVs in my nursing program and trying to understand it on my own as a new grad is like reading a foreign language. There are so many tiny nuances that I can't seem to make sense of.

If I have a 50cc IVPB of Zosyn set at 40cc VTBI, and it will be the final bag of abx for the patient, how do I make sure the entire bag gets infused without pulling air into the line? (For instance say I restart the pump with a VTBI of 8cc, a slightly lower value than the assumed 10cc remaining, but there is actually only 5cc left due to priming or something.) Since you can't tell exactly how much is left with a glance, how do you give the rest/all of it (before the primary starts again) without accidentally pulling air from the bag? Is it not a big deal to waste the remaining abx? They always taught us that patients need the absolute full course of abx.

[chare]

If it were me, and the patient wasn't severely fluid restricted, I would program 80 mL as the IVPB volume to infuse.  If you have the bags properly positioned this will allow the entire volume of the Zosyn to infuse, and when that bag collapses the remaining volume, pulled from the primary bag, will push all of the antibiotic through the IV line ensuring that the patient received the entire dose.

Best wishes.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

Not sure what is the norm for all, we usually run many of our meds as a piggy back so the line does not run dry. I know that our cardiac pts, that is a no-no for obvious reasons. I make sure to check on my meds withing 15 min of them being finished with primary at 10mL/hr until I can get into the room