Lines, ports, catheters???

[mdphd2b]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi all,

I am in the process of doing 2 electives before my required 3rd yr clerkships. Both are inpt consult services. I don't take Medicine & Surgery until after Xmas, so there are a lot of aspects of inpt care that I'm not familiar with.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a quick review/reference that talks about all the different lines, ports, catheters, drains, etc that we like to stick into our patients. Whenever I see a new consult, I have to inspect & report all the "hardware" that's attached, but I'm not sure sometimes how these things are identified 😱

Thanx in advance. I'm assuming we'll learn a lot about this stuff in Surgery!

 

[Mr. McDuck]

Advanced Surgical Recall is pretty good with the drains and ports.

 

[Anka]

Ask the nurse who's taking care of the patient. They know what the names of what's in, and after a few weeks you'll know what everything is, too. It's hard to look stuff up in a reference book, because the pictures will show a generic, which may not look exactly like it does when it's in your patient.

Anka

 

[carrigallen]

I think it's hard to know just by looking sometimes, portacath vs. IJ vs. triple lumen, Swan, hemedialysis, subclavian, you're just looking at a tube on the neck with a bandage covering it. The nurse's signout note will usually say the lines though.

 

[sophiejane]

Ask the nurse who's taking care of the patient. They know what the names of what's in, and after a few weeks you'll know what everything is, too. It's hard to look stuff up in a reference book, because the pictures will show a generic, which may not look exactly like it does when it's in your patient.

Anka

Amen to that. Those folks are hardware geniuses. I swear sometimes I watch them put tubes into connectors into needles into this and that and I can never keep it straight...

Use them--nurses are a great resource. Just be nice.

 

[Dr JPH]

Asking nurses and other ancillary staff the names of equipment is a good thing, I agree with that. Just be careful because you will sometimes run into cases where certain equipment has a name that is unique to that institution.

You would be suprised how many places dont know what a Basic Metabolic Panel is. They have their own little names for them.

Same goes for different port, lines, tubes, connectors...you name it.