In a hospital, a drip is a short, small plastic tube that a doctor or nurse will put into a patients vein using a needle. The tube is sometimes known as a cannula, intravenous fluids, or IV. The doctor or nurse will leave the plastic tube in so that fluids and medicines can go directly into the patients blood. A drip can stay in for several days and is used to give patients fluid or medicines directly into a vein quickly. The drip can be connected to long tubing or syringes to deliver fluids and medicines, and often the doctor or nurse will put long tubing into a special IV pump on a drip stand that will control the amount of fluid that will go in. Most of the time, the long tubing will stay connected, and the patient will need to take the drip pump and stand wherever they go. Drips can block, leak, or become infected, so the nurses will regularly check them.