With needleless injection ports on IV tubing, there is greater risk of touching the tip of a medication filled syringe accidentally when attempting to place it in the port. Is it OK to scrub off the tip of the syringe with alcohol swab for 15 seconds (like the injection ports are) and use it or do you have to throw away the medication- which you might not have any more of on the floor. What about in home care settings? What do we tell patients who are self administering meds at home with limited supplies? anything published on this?
No, absolutely not, not ever should you attempt to clean a syringe tip and then use it. This cleaning procedure for needleless connectors is not intended to render the needleless connector sterile. It is meant to provide as much cleaning to the surface as possible, but it is never sterile. You would not be able to sterilize the syringe tip by any form of cleaning it. CDC guidelines emphasizes that all needleless connectors and catheter hubs must be accessed ONLY with sterile devices. There is never a valid reason for using any thing less than a sterile syringe. If one is accidentally contaminated, then it must be discarded and a new syringe obtained. Lynn
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
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for responding-
OK so let me ask this another way- if the sterile tip of the syringe touches a hub that is "clean as possible" then isn't the syringe tip only "clean as possible" and no longer sterile after it touches the hub anyway? again, what about homecare? the patient might only have 1 dose of the med and one syringe. I'm asking this becasue i saw it on some homecare site that it was ok to wipe off the tip of the tubing or syringe if the accidentally touched it agianst something. I want to know what is safe to tell those patients.
Thanks
In my opinion, it is not safe and should never be taught to patients. CDC states very clearly that all catheters must be accessed only with a sterile device. If the IV set is contaminated, it must be disgarded and a new one obtained. The same thing is true for flush syringes also. We have a significant problem now with cleaning needleless connectors. How do we clean them, what agent, for how long, etc? If you have a contaminated set or syringe you are only compounding the risk to the patient, a practice that is very dangerous. As an expert witness, if I ran across such a practice either in a written procedure or a deposition, it would be very good information to support the nurses deviation from the standard of care. So the nurse and her company would be in a very bad position. And as an additional note, I am seeing more legal cases involving infection these days. Don't want to be overly frightening, but it is something you must think about. Lynn
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