If “Santa Claus” was an infusion patient…

1. It would be very difficult to get an accurate patient information. Imagine this.. Nurse: Please tell me your name? Patient: “St. Nicholas” but you call me“Santa Claus“. I am also called Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and many other different names depending on the language. “HO! HO! HO!” Nurse: Hmm, ok, …now I will need…

FAQ: Are you a new nurse?

…is a frequently asked question I get from patients who come for infusions on a regular basis and haven’t seen me before. I don’t blame the patients, to them I am not a familiar face since I was not there during their last treatment or previous times they have come for their infusions. So they…

You want “what” given IV?

In the years I have been an infusion nurse, none of my patients would volunteer to have an “IV access” started for any reason unless prescribed for the treatment their illness or to save their lives. It seems that a lot of consumers, not necessarily “patients” in the traditional definition, are seeking unconventional IV treatments.…

Poll results: Bevel up or Bevel down when inserting IVs

A week ago, I posted a poll on my blog about inserting a peripheral IV catheter, bevel up or bevel down. Here’s the result as of 11.23.2010. The poll showed, inserting bevel up is the technique used by 92.11% of the blog readers who took the poll. It is also the common practice and the…

Bevel up or Bevel down?

A week ago, a colleague @nerdymedic posted this question posted this on Twitter. “Can you shed some light on the “bevel down” technique that some profess for peds?” It was an interesting question, to which I replied: Bevel down vs. bevel up when inserting IV catheters. I have always inserted peripheral IV catheters bevel up…

“Older…but not Wiser! “

As a little girl, I often heard my mother say … “You’ll be wiser when you’re older”. At that time, I thought older adults were totally cool folks. They were wise, acted, talked and behaved like they knew it all!! I couldn’t wait to become like them.  As an RN, I had the same thoughts…

A love affair with all things bloody…

… bloody, as in blood return… which, to an infusion nurse is truly exhilarating! When I am challenged to insert a 24g peripheral IV catheter in a tiny, invisible vein of a dehydrated infant, I jump for joy as I watch anxiously for the blood return and pray that blood continues to backflow as I…

10 Tips for patients on infusion therapy

It is amazing when you meet someone and they find out you are a nurse (infusion nurse), they start asking a lot of health related questions. Honestly, I don’t mind and I am grateful that most people I meet know what “infusion therapy” is,  although a few are still confused that it means…blood draw!!  😦…