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)
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.
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
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
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.
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