Q: Unless I was absent during class on weight based dosing, I was never taught to round up or down. I can round up the weight but the exact calculated mg/kg dose is given, no rounding up or down. The common practice where I work is to round the calculated dose up if more than…
The answer is YOU DON’T !! Not in any circustance should nurses and any other healthcare providers re-use a disposable syringe. Disposable syringes are single use only! This seem like a no brainer, right ? Then you see news like this…(Click on the image below to read the news article ) What? Did…
This is an updated version of the 2014 publication. The current update (2016) adds 34 drugs, five of which have safe-handling recommendations from the manufacturers. Hazardous drugs include those used for cancer chemotherapy, antiviral drugs, hormones, some bioengineered drugs, and other miscellaneous drugs. This document presents criteria and sources of information for determining whether a drug is…
In case you missed it, the Infusion Nurses Society (INS) has published an updated position paper on The Role of Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP) in the Provision of Infusion Therapy. UAP is the common term used to describe the various assistive personnel to whom physicians, RNs, and other health care professionals may delegate patient care activities,…
Q: I am a staff nurse doing home infusion. I’ve seen an increase in new home patients requiring infusions of Remicade and Entyvio this year.I have a patient to start soon and I have found no evidence on how safe these drugs are if administered at home. They are given in a doctor’s office where…
Q: We work in a single physician office based infusion clinic and we infuse drugs for rheumatoid arthritis by gravity, not by pump, because pumps are expensive. Me and the other nurse think dial-a flow tubing will be useful especially on a busy infusion day. What do you think? A: Dial-a-flo devices are designed to…
This is an updated version of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) hazardous drugs list. So what’s new in this current update? The text for the update to the 2014 list was updated and expanded to reflect the complexity of safe handling issues that have arisen over the past few years. This…
If you are a registered nurse currently working with/delegating/supervising “unlicensed healthcare personnel” (UHCP) also known as “unlicensed assistive personnel” (UAP), would you be interested in answering a short survey related to the use of unlicensed healthcare personnel in the provision of infusion therapy? The survey is open to US registered nurses from all healthcare settings who work…
Q: You will think I am a complete idiot but please explain when is a single use syringe considered used? I need to explain to my practice manager why I can’t re-use a syringe while reconstituting a powdered medication for injection. My practice manager is complaining that I am using too many syringes and needles which…
I know, this may come as a surprise to all of you, but the truth is, I have seen many nurses (even those highly trained and specialized) both in hospitals and outpatient settings, use the same alcohol swab over and over. Imagine this scenario where a nurse is ready to withdraw medication from several vials.…
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