December 25…a day to celebrate Christmas or that special holiday you celebrate! Many people are off from work taking time to celebrate with loved ones, friends, and family. Many are working to keep us safe or away at war striving to protect our country and to care for those who are ill. That includes nurses and…
According to the INS Standards of Practice, stabilization of vascular access devices shall be used to preserve the integrity of the access device, minimize catheter movement at the hub, and prevent catheter dislodgment and loss of access. A catheter stabilization device is a device/system specifically designed and engineered to control movement at the catheter hub, thereby decreasing catheter movement…
Today is Halloween and while it’s my favorite “unofficial” holiday, I am wimp when it comes to scary movies and I don’t care for people’s costumes with blood, guts, and gore. No, not because I’m scared but as a nurse, I’ve seen my fair share. But as an infusion nurse, I love seeing blood!! Ok,…
I am very grateful that we only got rain, cold temperatures and high winds where I reside, but I was closely monitoring the events in the East Coast where Hurricane Sandy was predicted to hit. The TV coverage and social media was quite extensive that unless you didn’t want to know, you wouldn’t miss anything.…
as in discontinuing (removal) a central venous access device. Certainly, many of us have discontinued a central venous access device (central line) before. No big deal, right? One key element to remember when discontinuing a CVAD is to include precautions to prevent air embolism. Air embolism from removal of central lines can occur when a…
By now, we should know the difference between a vein and an artery, right? I hope so, because we’ve learned this in nursing school unless you’ve forgotten those trivial matters, like names of veins and arteries. This could be the case especially when you don’t often use the names of the veins and arteries in…
..many facilities/organizations have them, some don’t. Many nurses know what their IV policies and procedures are, others don’t have a clue or don’t even know they should have one. Others say…yeah, we do have them but here’s what we do! Borrowed from a previous post- “Terms of Confusion” about Policies and Procedures: Policies are the established rules…
Nope, it’s not about the three magi, triple crown or the blessed trinity. It’s about this blog being around for 3 years. This week, the Infusion Nurse Blog is celebrating its 3rd year blog anniversary!!! As I always do at each anniversary, here are the top five most read posts this year: 1. “Just Say No”:…
here are a few FDA recalls you might want to know…. 1. Class 1 Recall for Carefusion Alaris Infusion Pump Model 8015 – read notice here The issue: FDA notified healthcare professionals of a Class I Recall of the Alaris PC unit, model 8015. A component on the PC unit power supply board is causing…
In the past, we have routinely replaced peripheral IV catheters every 48-72hours. Since INS 2011 Standard for Infusion Nursing revised it to site rotation based on clinical indications, PIV site assessment is even more important now. So how frequent should you assess the patient’s peripheral IV site? According to the latest Position Paper from the Infusion…
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