At my hospital we do not have a policy for y-tubing peripheral IV potassium. Myself and couple of other nurses are trying to find evidence based research to submit to the powers-that-be so that we can get a written policy. As a new RN, I was given instruction by more experienced RNs that when hanging IV potassium to a peripheral IV that the best thing to do to prevent extravasation/burning is to get 2 pumps, hang the potassium on 1 pump and y-port it to NS which is hung using its own pump. However, I cannot find any research/articles on doing this. The closest I can find is that many articles say "be careful/aware of extravasation and take measures to avoid it" but do not say what those "measures" should be. I have even had our hospital librarian search for articles and he didn't find anything pertinent.
So my question is: what is your personal policy as an RN when you hang potassium AND does your facility have a written policy for y-porting or diluting potassium in some way? I'm hoping that maybe if I can at least get an RN consensus that I can present that and get a written policy to help out our new RNs (and more experience RNs too!) AND prevent harm to our patients.
Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions/comments!