Bag Burpin'

Ahsirt the Super Tech strikes again!!! Actually, I have been "super tech" in the IV room since Thursday. I like being IV Super Tech. There's just something about sitting in the hood and knowing that you can't screw up. Prior to Friday, I had made vancomycin in NS and Rocephin in NS piggy backs. On Friday, I graduated to narcotics. Narcotics used in PCA pumps are different than your typical vanc bag. There can't be any air in a PCA bag. Friday we got a new cancer patient referred through hospice. Her pain was being unsuccesfully controlled by fentanyl patches, so the doctor ordered a PCA with Dilaudid. They ordered 0.5mg of Dilaudid per 1mL of NS. We decided to make it 1mg of Dilaudid per 1mL of NS so as to cut down on the risk of calculation errors. This way when the nurse goes to program the pump, it's simply 1mL for every milligram of Dilaudid. I got in the hood and pulled 50mL out of the 500mL NS bag. Then I injected 50mL of Dilaudid into the bag. Now comes the fun part. I had to burp the bag to get all of the air out. This is a bit frustrating - especially when you can't get the champagne bubbles to congeal. But 20 minutes after getting in the hood, I had succesfully removed all air bubbles from the bag. My preceptor was much pleased. I was rather pleased with myself. Ahsirt is THE bag burpin' super tech. :)