Working Wonders

NICU nurses save time, money and deliver safer care

Cherie Raub’s and Denise Keeler’s Working Wonders idea saves time, money and potentially prevents infections in our youngest patients.

For many years, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) used a special IV tubing with a holding chamber. This allowed nurses to mix their own IVs and provided another way for nurses to see how much IV fluid was delivered to patients.

Now, the pharmacy mixes IVs. Still, NICU continued using the older tubing. “We believed it provided an added safety feature because we could see how much nutrition each baby received,” says patient care specialist Cherie Raub, R.N. “But with the increased accuracy of pumps that monitor IV volume, we’ve realized the old tubing isn’t needed.”

The new tubing is 30 percent less expensive and might help prevent infections. “It also saves time,” says Denise Keeler, R.N. “It used to take us five minutes to prime the IV (push the air out). Now it only takes 90 seconds.”

How It Adds Up
IDEA Switch IV tubing used in NICU
BY Cherie Raub, R.N., and Denise Keeler, R.N.
ANNUAL SAVINGS $6,819
AWARD AMOUNT $511 each

ARTICLE TOOLS: