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Sue Witkowski
Tubing Labeling

I need some information on best practices for labeling of IV tubing when the patient has multiple infusions.

1.  Should a tubing be labeled with the name of the mediation being infused? (ex - morphine, maintenance, dobutamine)

2. Is more than one label required?

3. Where should this label(s) be placed along the tubing?

4. How do the channel labels on IV pumps contribute to this?

We are trying to establish a best practice to prevent hanging a medication to the wrong IV channel. This has implications for mismatched tubing connections too. (ex - tube feeding to IV etc)

rivka livni
In our ICU we put two

In our ICU we put two lables, one on the IV pump channel and one on the tubing closest to the patient.

On multilumen PICC I always lable the lumen that will be dedicated for TPN.

Chris Cavanaugh
Microclave by ICU Medical

Microclave by ICU Medical now has collars for the Microclave that lables the connector--color coded and one for TPN

Chris Cavanaugh, CRNI

Chris Cavanaugh, RN, BSN, CRNI, VA-BC

lynncrni
Color coding is not

Color coding is not recommended by any organization - INS, ISMP - there can be serious problems with it and there have not been any studies with positive findings. So I would caution everyone to not rely on any form of color-coding. 

Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI

www.hadawayassociates.com

Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI

Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.

PO Box 10

Milner, GA 30257

Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com

Office Phone 770-358-7861

Peter Marino
Not to worry Lynn, it's not

Not to worry Lynn, it's not a secret code. The labels merely have different colors, they still have print on them, that require the R.N. (or whom ever) to fill in the appropriate information. An example is on page 8 in the link, http://www.tshsc.com/images/literature_pdfs/LabelCatalogPdfs/Nursing.pdf

 of days of the week labels (with different flouresent colors). Just makes them a little eaiser for us to spot from across the room(when the primary RN failed to put the Pt. in for a 72hr restart).When  working with other Pt's. 

Makes me wonder why different gauges of PIV catheters are color coded? I agree you can't count on colors; blue hubed PIV catheters (BD) are 22GA, but blue colored winged steel butterfly needles are 23GA (BD) and 22GA hypodermic needles are gray(jelco) and so on....

Now if I could just get other people, other than IV R.N.'s, to attach the labels....... 

 

[quote=lynncrni]

Color coding is not recommended by any organization - INS, ISMP - there can be serious problems with it and there have not been any studies with positive findings. So I would caution everyone to not rely on any form of color-coding. 

Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI

www.hadawayassociates.com

[/quote] Staff R.N. with no affiliation to any product or health care company(your basic front line grunt/wage slave)

Peter Marino R.N. BSN CRNI VA-BC Hospital based staff R.N. with no affiliation to any product or health care company.

JoseDelp
We label tubings at the

We label tubings at the lowest y-site with drug name and the IV pump with the drug name

Jose Delp RN BSN

CliClinical Nurse Manager IV Team

Upper Chesapeake Health

Jose Delp RN BSN

CliClinical Nurse Manager IV Team

Upper Chesapeake Health

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