What exactly does the nurse think...

[caligas]

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...is going to happen if I don’t immediately replace my empty saline bag?

I’m tempted to ask, but somehow prefer to discuss here.

 

[jeesapeesa]

...is going to happen if I don’t immediately replace my empty saline bag?

I’m tempted to ask, but somehow prefer to discuss here.

i'm guessing an air embolism. they are always looking out for me.

 

[Iso4ane]

i'm guessing an air embolism. they are always looking out for me.

What if he degasses the bag?

 

[caligas]

What if he degasses the bag?

Hard to embolize air through an IV without pressure.

 

[anbuitachi]

...is going to happen if I don’t immediately replace my empty saline bag?

I’m tempted to ask, but somehow prefer to discuss here.

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

 

[AdmiralChz]

Gosh yalls circulators must be on it! I don’t think I’ve ever had a nurse mention the bag level to me CA 1-3 or in fellowship.

 

[jwk]

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

🤣

 

[deleted87051]

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

I tell them there’s 4hrs left at 75ml/hr.

 

[Southpaw]

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

Why have YOU gotten crap? If they wanna change it, tell them to go ahead.

 

[anbuitachi]

Why have YOU gotten crap? If they wanna change it, tell them to go ahead.

I guess you pick your battles and it just wasn't something i wanted to get into in between cases. Especially as a junior resident at the time when all the blame goes to you and none to the nurses. Piss the nurses off and they can easily just screw you over. The nurses who care about these things are often times the lazy nurses who aren't that great at the job but still have the backing of all the other nurses cause they are all unionized. They can easily screw you over by taking their time doing xyz after the patient comes out of the OR and take handoff from your 20 minutes later and the next thing you know, your attending is yelling at you for taking to long to turn over and seeing the next patient, the surgeon is pissed that its taking too long, and the OR nurse is documenting delay due to anesthesia.

 

[Mman]

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

poor form to drop off in PACU with an empty (or nearly empty bag) because the PACU nurse might be tied up or patient could become unstable and that's one more thing to worry about. But 300 mls? F Off. Plenty of fluid for PACU purposes. If they need more, they can go get more. Plus it's a total money waste to be pitching that much fluid out.

 

[btbam]

Is this a real thing? In nearly 7 years in the OR I've never had a nurse once mention my fluids being low/out.

 

[Psai]

I've gotten crap from nurses a few times for only having 300 ml left in my liter bag. They said I should be changing it to a new liter bag before I get out of the OR

Are they aware that we have a national shortage of basically everything, including fluid?

You should replace the 300 mL bag with a 250 or a 100.

I've heard from my attendings that we should not go to pacu with an empty bag. I replace it if it's less than ~100 cc depending on the patient but I've never had a nurse bring it up.

 

[anbuitachi]

Are they aware that we have a national shortage of basically everything, including fluid?

You should replace the 300 mL bag with a 250 or a 100.

I've heard from my attendings that we should not go to pacu with an empty bag. I replace it if it's less than ~100 cc depending on the patient but I've never had a nurse bring it up.

Oh this was not that recent. It was before the shortage. But ha that is funny. 100ml bag!
Though these days even with the shortage, i still often see nurses in the ICU throw away a perfectly good bag of plasmalyte that we bring up the patient on and switch it to NS

But yea i definitely would not bring the patient to PACU with an empty IV bag. It'd be also unsafe for the patient if something were to happen during transport.

 

[zizzer]

I try to at least hang another unopened bag on the pole with it if it's low, but I don't sweat it if I forget or am not able to. Emergence is a busy time and it's just as simple for them to do in the PACU.

 

[Psai]

Oh this was not that recent. It was before the shortage. But ha that is funny. 100ml bag!
Though these days even with the shortage, i still often see nurses in the ICU throw away a perfectly good bag of plasmalyte that we bring up the patient on and switch it to NS

But yea i definitely would not bring the patient to PACU with an empty IV bag. It'd be also unsafe for the patient if something were to happen during transport.

Why would you throw out plasmalyte and put on NS? That's stupid in several different ways.

 

[anes121508]

I guess you pick your battles and it just wasn't something i wanted to get into in between cases. Especially as a junior resident at the time when all the blame goes to you and none to the nurses. Piss the nurses off and they can easily just screw you over. The nurses who care about these things are often times the lazy nurses who aren't that great at the job but still have the backing of all the other nurses cause they are all unionized. They can easily screw you over by taking their time doing xyz after the patient comes out of the OR and take handoff from your 20 minutes later and the next thing you know, your attending is yelling at you for taking to long to turn over and seeing the next patient, the surgeon is pissed that its taking too long, and the OR nurse is documenting delay due to anesthesia.

lol I must have gone to the same program

 

[jwk]

I try to at least hang another unopened bag on the pole with it if it's low, but I don't sweat it if I forget or am not able to. Emergence is a busy time and it's just as simple for them to do in the PACU.

Ditto - IF I REMEMBER, I'll take a bag with me so they don't have to get one out of the wonderful pharmacy machine. And if I don't, too bad.

 

[pgg]

One of the great immutable truisms of life is that if the Foley bag has more fluid in it than the IV bag, the PACU RN is going to whine piteously.

 

[deleted50478]

Why have YOU gotten crap? If they wanna change it, tell them to go ahead.

I’ve never been given crap for an empty iv fluid bag, since residency at least, but I’ll change it if it’s close to empty just to be nice.

On the other hand, I almost never empty a Foley bag unless it’s full. Circulator tried to hand me an empty plastic fluid container? No thanks. pacu nurse can’t figure out the pacu urine if it’s not empty? Ummm, empty it if you want or empty it later and subtract 100cc. It’s not that hard. Gotta draw the line somewhere I guess.

To the resident poster: probably just change the bag for now at least. It’s easy and you don’t want someone bad mouthing you behind your back over this type of stuff (and they won’t complain about you not changing the bag, they’ll complain about all kinds of stuff probably). When you are an attending, the nurses will be nicer and you will hopefully be friendly with them and happier to help out.