 What come to nursing school explained in this video on how to drop medications from an ampule? So an ampule rarely happens anymore But certain medications come in a glass vial and that is because the medication is not compatible with any kind of Plastic tubing or vial. So it looks a little bit different and it's made out of glass So there's a few extra safety precautions we have to take So of course you're always going to calculate the dosage You're going to do your hand hygiene and use aseptic technique when administering any kind of medication So I'm going to put on my gloves and because this vial is made out of glass when I open it I need to break it and so there is always a chance that either I get cut or That small fragments of glass get inside the vial and I certainly don't want to draw that up and then Administer it directly into my patient's vein So what I have is a couple of nifty tools Which is this device that helps me to break the cap and not cut myself and Then this special needle that's here And it says the size of the needle and 18 gauge and then it says with a filter and these special Filter needles or filter straws Make sure that in case a glass fragment gets into the vial after you break it That it gets filtered out by the needle and not drawn up into the syringe The other thing to be careful with ampules as you can see there has a little bit of fluid has Accumulated on the top here so I can either gently tap it or I can just shake it or tap it on the bottom Which will usually make that liquid go back down and There it is Okay, so now I'm going to use my nifty adapter to break that off if you don't have that easily available what you can do is use an alcohol wipe and Open it up carefully just on one side take out the alcohol and the wrapper of the alcohol wipe is pretty sturdy and Thick so you can use that insert the cap in there and then break it from there But the safer way is always to use the special device So I make sure that I don't have any liquid that's got to the top there now Okay, I put it in here and I just break it off That wasn't very safe because now the glass is on the floor So I need to make sure that I go ahead and take care of that when I'm done But now the top of the glass vial has broken off very interesting phenomenon is I can turn it upside down And nothing is going to drip out because of the surface tension So keep that in mind. However, once I put a needle in there, it might drip out So I'm going to use the filter straw and hook it up to my syringe and Then this isn't this kid is a really big 18 gauge needle so I want to make sure I take safety precaution and Usually in a vial we insert air first I don't want to insert any air in this because I don't have that rubber stopper that keeps the vial pressurized so I can just insert the needle and Then draw it up in this case I can either do it upside down or I can still turn it around I just have to and again the liquid will stay in there with the surface tension and then I just have to carefully Withdraw all of the fluid Or whatever the dosage is that I need to administer Then of course I get rid of any air bubbles but gently tap in the syringe Or not so gently if they're stubborn There it goes and then I push the air out to whatever desired dosage I have so in this case We'll say I need two mls and Then I can either Carefully again recap this one-handed method so that I don't advertently poke myself and then use my hand to secure it But I cannot administer the medication with the filter straw because the some glass fragments might be in there So then at some point If this is an IV medication I would just go to the patient take this off After cleaning the port and administering to the patient or if this is an IM medication I would just change the needle to whatever appropriate size needle that I need So ampoules are quite fascinating. They can be a little bit scary Just make sure you that you stay safe with the glass fragments and not cut yourself by using the special tools and the filter straw And then remember don't be afraid because the surface tension is going to keep the fluid in the ampoule Thanks for watching nursing school explained also check out the other videos in my medication administration playlist. See you soon Thanks for watching