Manually setting drip rates

[armymedic571]

The stories of people joking about eyeballing infusions makes me cringe. Ruff, IMHO we should not be eyeballing these kinds of medications.

Take care,

chbare.

I never took you as the type to sneer at the dark humor that accompanies our profession. Or....have I misread your statement?

[CBEMT]

The Buretrol is meant to be used with the IV pump. If you screw up with your calculations, the patient, particularly a child, hopefully with then not be bolused with a large amount of fluid or meds.

That's why we have them, and had them before we got our pump requirement- to prevent overfilling kids during routine IVs. I don't know anyone who's used one though.

[fiznat]

We have Buretrols here as well, although I've only used them once or twice. I think they are a good safeguard against catastrophic infusion errors, but they don't do anything to solve the fundamental problem of being unable to properly set a drip rate in the field.

I think that if we want to align ourselves with our "equivalents" in the allied health professions, we paramedics are going to have to stop cutting corners and quit doing stuff that would be considered negligence anywhere else. No way "eyeballing" med infusions like this is the right thing to do.