What do use to mix IM injections?

[guardwife]

Fours years ago I worked for a large Children's Hospital for about seven years. When we had to do IM antibiotic injections we would mix the med with lidocaine. For the past few years I have been working at a small community based hospital in a differant area of the country on a PP WB Nursury. Very rarely do we have to administer IM antibiotics and pharmamcy usually premixes all the meds, but on occasion we do and mix with lidocaine.

The very small pedi floor combined with us and the other day I saw large vials of bacteriostatic normal saline on the floor, which sent up red flags everywhere. The current Nurses brought it over from their last unit because they feel it is gentler than lidocaine for IM inj. I am just nervous for the fact that we are a combined unit and the chance for a mistake especailly in the nursery is huge.

Just wanted to see what people are using to mix their IM injections and do you have any policies.

Thanks I also posted this on Pedi and PICU threads

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

The only thing we give IM are immunizations, vitamin K, and the occasional Amp/gent. Pharmacy always mixed those.

I used to mix IM meds in lidocaine when I worked peds ER, but that would be too much lido for our size population.