Wipe the iv port even with antibiotics?

[Nurse-84]

So thursday I was assisting a RN that was kinda drowning. She was gathering all the patients medications and what not and prepping. There was an antibiotic due and she grabbed the tubing that was capped by the previous nurse and just hooked the antibiotic up and then just connected it to the patient. Myself I always wipe the patients IV port even if I just cleaned it again. I asked her after we left why she didn't wipe the IV port and she said 'WELL I'M HANGING AN ANTIBIOTIC ANYWAY SO WHATS THE WORSE THAT CAN HAPPEN, I NEVER WIPE WITH ANTIBIOTICS.." That made me think about that. Not that I take anyone's advice with practice.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Wow.....I sit here shaking my head wondering how people function in this world and how did they even graduate school.

If she thinks it's ok I'd ask her if she would wnat this done this way on her own child/family.

I'd say something to your educator/infection control in private that this concerned you.

[ParisAntonel]

At our hospital we cover all ports with caps ( they are like alcohol wipes), everytime I give meds, I remove cap, I still scrub with alcohol pad, and place a new cap.

[ICULINDA]

Wow. We use these orange caps that have alcohol in them so when you remove them you don't have to scrub as long as the hub did not touch anything else. Out of habit I scrub anyways. If one of those orange caps isn't on then I'm scrubbing. And like another person mentioned she didn't bother to flush the line. How does she know the line is even patent? It doesn't take but a few seconds to scrub and flush. Pure laziness.

[ICU56]

Its just being lazy. Its lazy habits like this that make patients endure unnecessary sticks and increase the incidence of HAIs. Every IV that is left uncared for or is treated poorly exposes the patient to increased risk of infection. That is an unacceptable outcome for what takes 30 seconds to accomplish.