Published Jan 17, 2009
His_girl
31 Posts
Hi,I was just wondering what it means to set your pump "with basal" on your PCA pump? On the machine I saw you could make it "with basal" or "without basal".Thanks so much for any info. :)
APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP
995 Posts
basal rate means that there is a steady infusion of medicine going through the IV. For example, a 1mg basal rate of Morphine means that 1 mg of Morphine is steadily infusing over each hour. The patient is unable to manipulate this infusion of morphine. The patient CAN manipulate the PCA dose of Morphine, however, by pressing their PCA button to deliver a pre-determined infusion of Morphine.
Thanks for replying and answering my question! I really appreciate it, that makes perfect sense!
blondy2061h, MSN, RN
1 Article; 4,094 Posts
PlaneFlyer got is right on. PCAs are great, and we use them with basal a lot. It's nice, because it lets the patient get some sleep without their pain getting uncontrolled in the interval they're not demanding medicine in.