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Bedside procedures

How to check an IV site for infiltration

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.

Nursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Check the IV site often. Early signs are easy to miss without comparing both arms.

Step by step

  1. Look and feel

    Swelling, color, temperature, leaking, dressing intact. [1]

  2. Compare arms

    Swollen, cool, pale and tight suggests infiltration. [1]

  3. Phlebitis

    Redness, warmth and a hard cord along the vein. [1]

  4. Ask

    Pain or burning at the site. [1]

  5. Act

    Stop the infusion, remove the IV, elevate; restart in another site. [1]

  6. Vesicant

    If a vesicant leaked, follow the extravasation protocol (it may include an antidote) before removing. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in Making Synapses

In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

Making Synapses cases that train this skill

Sources

  1. Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
  2. OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference)

Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts and steps also follow OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference). Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.