Intravenous Setup and Monitoring Quiz

1 Your paramedic has just finished placing an intravenous catheter and asks you to hang a bag of Ringer's Lactate (LR). You pull a bag from the cabinet and spike it. As your partner goes to hook the bag to the extension, they note that you have spiked a bag of normal saline (NS). After finding and spiking the correct bag of fluid, are you able to place the initial LR back into the cabinet for use with another patient if you have not connected the bag to this patient?

2 Normal saline is a mixture of 0.9% NaCl and water that has been sterilized. Does normal saline have an expiration date?

3 A microdrip set is one where _____ drops = 1 mL fluid.

4 Choose the correct order of operations.

1. Flush the line
2. Spike the bag
3. Remove cover from spike port
4. Inspect bag for impurities
5. Fill the drip chamber
6. Close the line
7. Stop the flow of fluid

5 An alternative way to spike the bag is to insert the spike into the side of the bag, along the seam.

6 You have just finished flushing your line and notice several bubbles in the line, possibly because you forgot to fill the drip chamber before your flush. What should you do?

7 When you fill the drip chamber, it should be completely full.

8 You arrive at the hospital and unload your patient, who has an IV in the antecubital fossa (AC) with normal saline (NS) running. You move the bag from the ceiling of the ambulance to the gurney's IV pole and enter the hospital. While waiting for a bed, you note that the fluids, which had been running quickly in the ambulance, seem to be running slow. What could be causing this phenomenon?

9 Your partner asks you to stop the administration of fluids. How should you do this?

10