Facts About Infusion Nurses
Infusion nurses play an important role in giving the right doses and proper methods of medicine via intravenous therapy. Infusion nurses are in charge of using the right intravenous device to use on patients as well as evaluating and monitoring the patient’s response to medication given through intravenous methods. You can find a trusted infusion nurse from Gifted Healthcare.
What is an Infusion Nurse?
Infusion nurses play 4 important roles and these include being an advocate, mentor, resource, and collaborator. Infusion nurses make sure that the ways used to deliver the intravenous medication are proper and the dosages are always right. If you are already a nurse and want to learn more about this you can always look for a RN to BSN program where you will get more information not only on this but other areas of your career.
Roles of Infusion Nurse
Performs Infusion
Infusions nurses do the following infusions: Chemotherapy infusions, blood transfusions, electrolyte transfusions, steroid transfusions, and vitamin transfusions. These transfusions are important procedures to make patients feel much better, therefore they should be administered by the right nurse and the proper way.
Administering Medication
Some medications can not be done orally since the patients are incapable of ingesting them. For this case, fluid therapy is needed and this is done by infusion. Infusion nurses are assigned to do fluid therapy and monitor the IV therapy of each patient. They are also involved in creating care plans with the medical team assigned to the patients.
Incharge of Inserting and monitoring peripherally inserted central catheters
PICCs are used to get the intravenous fluid into the patient’s system. Infusion nurses are assigned to do this since they are trained on the proper way to insert PICC. They are then assigned to monitor the reaction of the IV therapy given to the patients.
Infusion nurses are in charge of dressing changes in midlines, central lines, and PICCs
Apart from the PICC, there are other lines such as midlines and central lines. These lines are also essential in keeping the condition of the patients better. Putting the lines in the proper place plays an important role in administering the needed fluid in the body of the patient.
Infection Control and Prevention
Infusion nurses have to make sure that their patients will not get infected upon administering fluids or insertion of lines. The sterility in doing the procedure is also important in this aspect to avoid complications. That’s why trained infusion nurses should be the ones to perform the procedure since they are brief to make it as sterile as possible.
Educating Patients and their Family About the Infusions Procedure
The infusion nurse has to explain to the patient and their family about the infusion procedure needed to be done to the patient. Since there are a lot of types of infusions, educating the patients is important so they can understand the reason why the infusion procedure needs to be done.
Facts About Infusion Nurse
Infusion nurses work in the hospital, clinics, and even home health. Therefore an infusion nurse should be flexible to work in whichever place they are needed.
*Infusion nurses are often needed to maintain state licenses since they can be assigned to different places. Most Infusion nurses are licensed professional nurses (LPN) or Registered nurses (RN).
*Infusion nurses have continuous learning to be able to engage their skills and knowledge on infusion.
*Certification issued by Infusion Nurses Certification Corporation (INCC) should be possessed by infusion nurses before they can work.
*The pay for infusion nurses ranges from $40,000 to $60,000 annual. However the pay can be affected by their experience, experience is important for nurses since this can measure their capability of performing their duties. Another factor that affects pay is the pace where they will be working, some areas pay higher and some areas pay the average.
Use these facts about infusion nurses to decide if infusion nursing is for you. As an infusion nurse, you will be able to expand your knowledge on a specific specialization and explore more about it. It is also your chance to see the result of all your work since you are the one making it possible for the medication to be administered to the patient. Each nurse has their own accomplishment and this is one of the accomplishments of an infusion nurse. Be an infusion nurse and focus on the specialization you are grabbing the opportunity to learn continuously.
