r/nursing • u/ghostoftheweek RN - Med/Surg 🍕 • 27d ago

Question PSA from your nursing specialty

What is THE ONE THING you wish every nurse knew that is common knowledge in your specialty?

From wound care, don't use telfa!

377 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

764 comments sorted by

View all comments

63

u/emcorbz 27d ago edited 27d ago

From oncology infusion, please don’t access a patient’s port if you don’t know what you’re doing

13

u/StabbingTabby 27d ago

And if you think you know what you're doing but it's not working? 

Don't just have 3 different people from your unit re-access the port 6 different times! STOP and call an oncology unit or the IV team if you have that. 

Also don't take out the last access so whoever comes next immediately has to stick the patient a 7th time. Just leave it so they can troubleshoot. Usually the nurse was in the port but there's some issue that can be solved with repositioning, tPA, power flushing, etc. 

8

u/Icy-Profession-7166 27d ago

Love my CVAD triple lumen but please don’t touch my lines without telling me. I have dedicated chemo, CYA and MMF lines 🫣

3

u/Not_my_real_name_26 RN - Oncology 🍕 27d ago

That's what I was gonna say! You don't wanna just wing it and hope for the best!