How to Prepare an IV Infusion

An intravenous infusion (IV infusion) is a way to deliver medicine to the body. This method is used for patients who can't take medicine or fluids orally, or when the body needs medicine more quickly than a standard oral pill or capsule can deliver. A doctor or nurse inserts a small intravenous line directly into a patient's vein to administer the medicine and/or fluids immediately. An IV infusion can be used in a hospital, specialty treatment centers, or at home.

Things You'll Need

• Sterile gloves
• Alcohol swabs
• Tape
• Tourniquet
• IV catheter
• IV tray with solution
• IV administration set
• IV hook
• Plaster
• Sterile 2x2 gauze
• Forceps soaked in antiseptic solution

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Instructions

• 1

  Wash your hands thoroughly, put on sterile gloves and inspect your equipment. Lay out all of your supplies so they are easily within reach. Check IV solution for expiration date, solution clarity and evidence of punctures. Do not touch the part of the catheter that will enter the patient's skin.

• 2

  Place the IV label on the IVF bottle with appropriate documentation. This should be signed by the nurse or doctor who prepared it for the patient. In a hospital setting, the label will include the patient's name, room number, solution or medication, bottle sequence, duration of IV drip and time and date administered.

• 3

  Open the seal on the IV infusion aseptically. Aseptically means you will be keeping equipment as sterile as possible by not touching any part that will enter the patient. Disinfect the rubber port on the bottle with an alcohol swab or cotton ball soaked in alcohol.

• 4

  Insert the IV administration tubing into the solution port with a quick twist. Hang the IV at least two feet above the patient's heart and gently squeeze the drip chamber until you see it is half full of solution.

• 5

  Remove the cap from the tubing adapter. Open the flow regulation clamp to allow the fluid to flush all air bubbles from the IV tubing. Close the flow regulation clamp and recap the tubing.

• 6

  Cut several strips of tape and have them easily accessible. Select a vein on the patient that is suitable for IV needle insertion. Apply a tourniquet to the arm 2 inches above the puncture site. Palpate the vein and swab the skin with an alcohol swab 2 inches around the puncture site.

• 7

  Pull the skin around the puncture site taut with your non-dominant hand. Insert the needle into the vein at a 30-degree angle. Insert the needle until you see blood in the chamber of the catheter. Decrease the angle of the needle to 15 to 20 degrees and carefully insert the needle about .5 cm further. Gently twist the catheter and insert all the way to the hub.

• 8

  Place your finger on the patient's vein at the site of the catheter insertion and apply gentle pressure to prevent blood from flowing out. Remove the needle while keeping pressure on the site. Remove the tourniquet band.

• 9

  Attach the IV administration tubing to the catheter hub while stabilizing the hub with your other hand. Open the flow regulation clamp and look for drips in the drip chamber, allowing the medicine or fluid to drip freely for several seconds. Dadjust the drip to the flow rate appropriate for the patient.

• 10

  Clean any blood drips and secure the catheter to the patient's arm with one strip of tape. Leave the catheter hub and the tubing connection clearly visible. Make a loop with the IV tubing a few inches long, and secure the loop to the arm of the patient with more tape. Apply a 2-by-2 inch piece of sterile gauze over the site of the catheter hub and secure with tape.