Saline Lock | Saline Flushes (Nursing Skills)

[@jennalefebvre397]

Very helpful for my clinical coming up in a couple weeks. Thank you!!

[@NurseMinder]

woohoo!

[@ha9357]

Your video helped me a lot thanks I appreciate it !! I have an exam tomorrow this makes me confident

[@NurseMinder]

yes! I hope you passed

[@micheledecker5939]

A majority of saline flush syringes are not sterile except for the tip and fluid path. Therefore, the nurse should not break the seal by pulling back on the plunger as this will cause the plunger to come in contact with the nonsterile area of the inside of the barrel. The only time this method can be used is when the saline flush syringe is sterilized and inside a sterile package.

[@NurseMinder]

Michele Decker thanks for your input. If you can share your resources here for the benefit of others, that would be appreciated. The syringe in this video is sterile. You are right, we often use a 3 ml pre-filled syringe for saline flush that does not require this process

[@micheledecker5939]

@@NurseMinder Lynn Hadaway RN has great articles on the use of prefilled syringes. Most nurses do not recognize this and put patients at risk. I take every opportunity to point out the differences! Thanks for your great video.

[@bubblybubbly333]

@@NurseMinder want is this for it smelled bad and taste bad when they did that to me when they injected that and me what is it for?

[@qiuxingtan6602]

Hi. Sorry for asking. I still don't get the difference between flushing and locking. At my workplace, after the IV antibiotic completed. We will use a 3mls luer lock syringe and withdraw hep saline, go to the patient and flush the IV line. We call this as 'flushing'.

[@NurseMinder]

Great question - and you may be using the terms interchangeably, but there is a difference. Flushing does not always mean locking. Sometimes we give multiple meds at a time, or as a single IV push, and we want to flush the line pre and post to prevent issues with non compatibilities Locking is a flush of a line (may or may not be related to meds) and a disconnection

[@qiuxingtan6602]

@@NurseMinder Meaning locking is not necessary related to flushing pre or post IV medication? It can be explain by we flush and reconnect the IV drip after it spigot for a while.

[@rolandtiu9934]

DO YOU NEED TO WEAR CLEAN GLOVES OR NOT ANYMORE?

[@NurseMinder]

It will depend on your agency policy. Gloves are needed to protect you from contact with body fluids

[@belugabeluga6109]

Hey, y'all what is the difference between Heparin lock, Med lock, and Saline lock?

[@NurseMinder]

The difference is what is in the line. Heparin is a medication and used often in PICC lines to improve patency and prevent blood clots. Medications will be an HDC that is dedicated to one med (see HDC video). Saline is most common and is used with IV, HDC and sometimes central lines. Always check your facility policies as they can change with medication availability and new evidence

[@bubblybubbly333]

I got this done and it smelt bad and it tastes bad when they rejected in my skin my vein they took my blood first then they put that thing inside of my vein what is that why does it smell bad?

[@NurseMinder]

Sounds like they administered medication - although I may have heard of saline doing this to one patient before

[@bubblybubbly333]

It look like a shot but they put it through this tube where they took the blood out after and they said do you taste that it would smell bad too and I was like what is this I wanted to make sure that they didn't give me anything wrong without asking me I was about to walk in through the hospital they're checking my height and everything and they took my blood and that's whenever they did it I just want to make sure they didn't give me nothing without my permission?

[@shumylaz]

When do you use a heparin flush? Is it used on a different type of picc line?

[@NurseMinder]

Heparin, saline, or sodium citrate are various ways physicians will order flushes / sometimes it comes down to resources, policies, and other times physician preferences

[@shumylaz]

@@NurseMinder thank you for your reply. So in short, no one way is superior or inferior to the other basically? A picc line can be flushed with just saline on a regular basis if the healthcare provider chooses that way. Am I correct?

[@NurseMinder]

No that is not entirely correct. The type of PICC line will dictate the type of flush (saline v anticoagulant). If it is an open system - it will need an anticoagulant to prevent blood clots forming. If it is a closed end PICC, saline will be fine as there is a one way valve at the end of the line that prevents backflow of blood

[@edgarrivera4623]

No need to aspirate the lock to see if its patent?

[@NurseMinder]

Always check your policy for your expected practice. We used to aspirate but the catheter tip can occlude itself to the vein wall and appear “blocked” - if you saline pushes in easily, and there is no swelling at the site, your line is good

[@mitsy565]

Why is pulsating pressure used when injecting the normal saline? And why does there need to be positive pressure?

[@NurseMinder]

It prevents blood from flowing up into the catheter- helps to maintain a patent line and decreases the risk of clots

[@hanhuynh7798]

👍

[@cecedetermined3854]

No gloves???

[@NurseMinder]

No. There is no risk to contact with patient bodily fluids so gloves are not needed. I know in today's workplace gloves are used for almost everything ... if not everything. It is not good use of resources IMO and it has caused some patients to feel fearful that they themselves have something that is contagious. We need to balance our care activities with resource management and patient outcomes.

[@unitedkamp270]

@@NurseMinder That, I think, is 100 % true. May I add: some people wearing gloves tend to keep them on and use them with multiple patients, let alone the necessary actions of hand hygiene during the same procedure not taking place. Sorry for poor English skills, I hope you get my point.

[@FairPLAYER]

Im in hospital nd i need to go pee

[@NurseMinder]

It happens :)

[@lonarsara]

ليتك قبلت يا نور عيوني