This article originally appeared on our blog medsafetyonline.org

There are a number of drugs that require nursing assessment at various intervals during their infusion; example: Rituximab (RITUXAN) , Immune Globulin, and infliximab (REMICADE). With each of these agents, tolerance to infusion and detection of infusion related side effects are essentials of the drug's administration.

These infusion issues are typically met by starting the infusion as a low rate and running it in over a defined period of time. At the end of the time, a nursing assessment is performed and if the patient is experiencing no infusion related complications, the infusion rate is increased by a defined rate and a new infusion interval is established for the next nursing assessment.

Taking Rituximab as an example, the following information is included in the package insert under the heading of First Administration: "First Infusion: Initiate infusion at a rate of 50 mg/hr. In the absence of infusion toxicity, increase infusion rate by 50 mg/hr increments every 30 minutes, to a maximum of 400 mg/hr." Nursing must, at each 50 mg / hr level, assess patient tolerance to the medication and observe for administration related issues.

RxTOOLKIT.com has designed a label that can be easily printed by the pharmacy (or nursing) and affixed to the infusion solution providing nursing with this important information.

RxTOOLKIT calculates for nursing and breaks down the barriers to patient focused care:

• Focus on patient needs, not equipment needs
• Let Smart pumps tell you when patient needs vital sign check
• Calculations are no longer a distraction from patients

When nurses spend time calculating infusion titration rates and trying to remember on their own when to check their patients vital signs they lose time they could be focusing on the patient. RxTOOLKIT can increase the IQ of your smart pump by performing the calculations for you...

Click here to read the whole article on our blog medsafetyonline.org