Thursday, August 27, 2009

Potassium Can Kill You

So. In case you didn't know, potassium is a very dangerous substance (at least when it comes to the human body). Today we were talking about IVs and IV solutions, and how there are strict restrictions on potassium and IVs due to the fact that "we were killing a lot of people." Oh, is that all??

My instructor went on to say that potassium IV pushes (pushing an amount of potassium directly into your bloodstream via your IV site) are only given in emergency situations: "We do give potassium in code situations - why? They're already dead! Can't get worse!"

I love my new instructor...


Another FYI - those tiny air bubbles in your IV line won't kill you - it would take an entire IV line of air to actually kill you... doesn't that make you feel better???

1 comment:

Britt said...

Good to know about IV bubbles. I learned all about potassium in hygiene school too. Love interesting facts like that :)