Understanding All The IV Set Ports
Included In This Lesson
Outline
Nursing Points
General
- On an IV primary tubing set, there are typically three ports:
- Port above the safety clamp
- Middle port
- Port nearest the patient
- Also known as “valves”
- The port nearest the drip chamber and above the safety clamp
- This port is for hanging piggybacks that must be infused through the pump
- The flow of the infusion at this port is controlled by the IV pump
- If the medication needs to be given over a specific time frame and is safety regulated by the pump, then use this port
- The middle port is below the safety clamp
- Intermittent or long term infusions that are infused by gravity should be used in this port
- Example: Albumin
- Medications that can be controlled with a flow regulator should utilize this port
- Intermittent or long term infusions that are infused by gravity should be used in this port
- The port nearest the patient
- Used for the direct administration of medication
- Examples: Pain medications or anti-emetics
- Used for the direct administration of medication
Transcript
Okay guys, in this lesson we’re going to talk about the IV ports. Now, this is a broad overview, but we’re going to cover some specifics that you need to know anytime you’re using one of these IV sets. Now there are ports along with this entire IV tubing known as Y sites or ports. This is where medication is attached or other maybe an intermittent tubing or an intermittent type of medication that you need to give. Typically there’s three on this two being set. There’s two, but we’re going to talk about the third one as well. So first off, you’ve got your upper one. The upper port is important because this one is the one that deals with piggybacks. It’s always going to be above the safety clam. There’s also a Y site or a port that’s closest to the patient. This is going to be really helpful for some intermittent infusions and also for any direct IV medications that you need to give.
So if you have to give lane Zofran or maybe some pain medications via IV push, this is the port that you’re going to want to do that in the third port. That’s really important that you’ll get sometimes in these priority tunings is one that’s really, really helpful for medications that don’t have to be regulated by the pump. These are things like albumin. If you can have something that can go just down a drip maybe from gravity or maybe it has its own flow meter, that’s a really good run for the goat that goes in that middle port.
Okay, guys, I hope that this has been really helpful. Now go out and be your best selves today and as always, happy nursing.