Pre-Filled Syringe Safety Concerns

Many nurses may want to dilute small volumes of IV push medications to aid slow administration or to reduce the possible blow out of an IV and a possible harmful infiltration, or they may want to dilute doses of IV analgesics to speed initial delivery to the patient.

Sometimes the nurse may want to gently introduce IV medication to a patients IV access site. This is an important choice for the nurse. Depending on where the IV access is located. If an IV is located in a patients arm (small vein) the nurse knows that any hypertonic solution (medication) may need to be diluted a little to ease the entrance of medication into the patients delicate IV Access site. If the IV site is a central line then the nurse would not pay as close of attentions to the hypertonic medication because of the large vein. But even though an IV push was given there should be either a normal saline flush behind it or a continuous IV helping push the remaining medication into the patients blood stream.

How do you dilute a pre-filled syringe? Is this possible and safe? Because is happening.

Nurses are emptying the entire Pre-filled syringe into a basic syringe then adding normal saline for dilution of medication.