Wheelchair and IV Pole

TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN · Oct 21, 2018

I wouldn't. If that pole catches on something and falls, either the patient is getting hurt or you can pull that port out.

Almost every wheelchair has 2 spots for attachments, usually where an anti-tipping sleeve goes (the pole sticking out the back of the wheelchair with wheels on the bottom). They make IV pole attachments that can go there.

Triddin · Oct 21, 2018

If the patient is aware enough to grip the pole, that's what we do

kai_altair · Oct 21, 2018

Just push the wheelchair with your left hand and the IV pole with your right

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Oct 22, 2018

Question for everyone out there...
I recently had a tech tell me I can push a pt in a wheelchair with the pt holding the IV pole between the pts legs. This was suggested so that only one employee is needed to move a pt. This sounds like a safety hazard to me, but am I wrong? Is this an efficient method that maybe I'm just missing?
Grateful for any advice!

I've done this several times.

Or try to find a w/c that has a place to hook the IV pole on.

Or put the IV pole near one of your hands (behind the patient) and go. you will be gripping the chair with one hand and the pole and chair in your other hand. You might not be able to move very fast, but you can make this work.

Or you can tape the pole securely to one of the w/c handles.

JKL33 · Oct 22, 2018

Or put the IV pole near one of your hands (behind the patient) and go. you will be gripping the chair with one hand and the pole and chair in your other hand. You might not be able to move very fast, but you can make this work.

Do this. ^

If you're right-handed, place the pole at the back of the wheelchair just to the inside/medial side of the right wheelchair handle so that the pole and its base and wheels are completely clear of the wheelchair wheel. Grip the right w/c handle with your right-hand fingers and use your handy opposable thumb to wrap around the IV pole. Maintain these positions so that your pole isn't veering this way or that way at all as you walk. Now you can travel easily as you will be pushing the pole and the W/C at the same speed. If you can't do this at a fairly fast walking speed (after you get the hang of it) then you may have other problems, like wheels on the pole that don't turn smoothly or poles that aren't well-balanced or are just so light they should be thrown in the dumpster anyway.

I have used the patient-hold-pole method sometimes, but I can't walk as fast that way because patients can't be expected to keep the pole going in a perfectly straight line at faster speeds.

I don't often transfer pumps over to w/c poles because doing so wastes my time.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

IV poles are top heavy and this is an accident waiting to happen. Patient guides pole, pole tips forward or to the side and rips the IV out....or worse, pole falls backward and lands on the patient.

I used to work at a facility that required patients have assistance to the bathroom even if they were self care if they had an IV because of this-they were afraid of the pole moving the wrong way with the patient guiding it and injury occurring.

Kallie3006, ADN · Oct 23, 2018

Not to sound naive, this is truly a honest question: where would you be taking a patient that requires the IV to be running during transfer and what medications do you feel is not ok to pause until patient has arrived to said destination?

I will SL or pause my infusion if the patient needs to leave the floor. If zosyn is running over the 4 hour infusion time I will use a dial a flow or the roller clamp to estimate drip rate if the patient is not going far. I do not, however, SL heparin, argatroban, cardizem ect and with these I've had to take the pump and the patient holds it while I carry the meds above.

I agree with the caution on having the patient in charge of the pole because of the top heaviness. I have had them try to flip forward when assisting the patient move etc, and usually follow those instances with "just doing a gravity check, were good" or "I guess I'm trying to find a reason to go home early "

JadedCPN, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

True story, when I was in one of my first clinical at school some 16 years ago I accompanied my patient to X-ray. When we went down to X-ray, I was just along for the ride and carried the chart while patient escort took care of the IV pole and wheelchair. However on the way back, the X-ray tech didn't want to wait for patient escort to come back and essentially pressured me into taking the patient back myself since it was just one floor up, right off the elevator. They told me to do exactly what is described here, have the patient hold onto the pole in front of them. For some dumb reason I caved and said ok. Everything was fine until we got to the elevator and tried to go over the elevator bump. We got stuck for a second, but then got over the hump and returned the pleasant old lady to her room.

Fast forward to the next day at clinical, and it turns out the patient had a big bruise on her wrist from gripping the pole as it got stuck on the hump. She didn't want me back as her student nurse, an incident report had to be filled out, and the day ended with us discussing it at clinical as a group while I balled my eyes out. That was a tough lesson to learn but it definitely was an eye opener.

Moral of the story: If you suck at driving patients who have multiple things to push like I do, then just wait for assistance.

Xiatara · Oct 23, 2018

So I'm just speaking from when I was in xray school because we were required to do rotations as a transporter in hospitals.

It's a common practice because there are IV poles that are wider and heavier than the normal IV poles you see of if you have to wheel their O2 tank too. Some older wheelchairs can't attach their O2 tank and some don't have attachments for an IV pole.

If you feel like its safer for both parties and if you instruct your patient how to safely do it or they aren't too weak, then go for it.

How we safely did it was that we had the patient hold on tightly to the IV pole and put the pole snug between their legs. Then you go slowly. When you go on elevators, make sure you go in backwards, you entering first so the patient is facing the doors. Most of the time, the IV pole will get caught if you're having to go a step up, but I just lift the IV pole if its light enough.

Of course, weak patients cannot hold it for long so I just hold the IV pole with my non dominant hand and the wheelchair handle with my dominant hand and steer with your wrist.

My toughest wheelchair transfer was probably with a bariatric patient who had an IV pole and an O2 tank. So I basically held the pole with my non dominant hand, O2 tank with my dominant hand and at the same time, I steered with my dominant hand, sometimes using my IV pole hand to help push cuz of how heavy the patient was.

Tbh, I'd rather do the above than take those bariatric beds down to xray. If we're busy down at the lab, I'm usually transferring alone and those beds are a nightmare without a second person at the footend.