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Flushing an IV Line
A simple but potentially costly procedure for both patient and Health Unit
Karen Wotton
PhD Candidate; Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing & Midwifery, The Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide SA
Lee-Anne Gassner
Research Assistant, Office of Clinical Nursing Research, Flinders Medical Centre/Flinders University, South Australia
Eileen Ingham
Lecturer
School of Nursing
The Flinders University of South Australia
Abstract
This observational study investigated the Intravenous (IV) medication
administration technique of Registered Nurses (n=47) using the
injection port of a concurrent intravenous infusion.
Study findings
showed that the majority of nurses adhered to the most common although
debatable recommended guideline in stopping the concurrent infusion and
slowly administering the medication in the syringe over 3-5 minutes,
prior to flushing the line quickly. Nurses failed to account for the
dead space in the IV line when calculating the administration rate
for pre and post medication flush. Similarly, the benefits of
continuing the concurrent infusion when administering intravenous
medication were not taken into consideration.
Based upon these study
findings, we recommend changes to procedural guidelines for IV
medication.
Keywords
intravenous medication administration, dead space, patency, flushing
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