What to do when the IV bag runs dry?

[mstigerlily]

New grad RN here. Well, we hang our bags to gravity and the other day I got busy and I guess bag was dripping faster than I had planned because when I went back the bag was bone dry. Before I always worked with IV pumps that beeped loudly and went to KVO till you had a chance to get back in the room.

Does this really hurt the pt: ie is there a bunch of air in the vein now - enough to hurt pt? What is the safest, most comfortable way to fix this?

I ended up using a 10cc syringe to try to pull back and get any air out plus check for a blood return, then I flushed the line to ensure patency and clamped it. Then I hung the new bag, re-primed the line, rehooked, unclamped, flushed again then restarted the drip and that seemed to work fine.

Melissa

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

NO,, no reason for you to worry about that as a patient. The blood will only back up so far,, not like you will fill the bag with blood. The backflow is as someone else posted normally just a small length then it evens out with gravity.

They should however, flush your port before they put up a new bag if you have blood backup in the tubing.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

mstigerlily said:

I work on a postpartum floor and we get the moms over from L&D already stuck so I can't do anything about making sure there is a lock site although there *usually* is.

Our floor is the only one in the hospital where we don't use pumps. I don't know why - all our csection moms need at least three bags of fluid when we get them so a pump would be nice.

I will have to try to trick of getting air out of the bag given above. That sounds like a good trick.

Melissa

Sure you can,, unscrew the IV tubing from the catheter hub and screw on a primed lock, then reattach the iv tubing, whella.

[sharann, BSN, RN]

Our facility uses a "dial-a flow" device that is an extension with a dial on it which can be set to deliver a certain amount per hr. They are NOT precise but can help alot if not using a pump. The rate is more carefully monitored than if no device is used. A flow contol device whether this or a pump is required by my hospital so we put them on every post op. If the patient is on a critical drip we obtain a pump immediately if not already on one.

[BimmieBear]

Hhhmm..interesting. Thanks enfermeraSG for the info! ^_^