We had an inservice yesterday. Now, they've instituted a new fall prevention policy that they basically expect every inpatient to be on. You have to reassess every 12 hours, plus reassess with every change such as a new narcotic or BP med, or transfer to another unit. They want the nursing staff to do hourly rounding, and have a sheet up in each room to check off that this was done, along with what the pt was doing at the time. They expect the nursing staff to ask "Is there anything else I can do for you? I have the time."
I told the woman that I wasn't going to say any canned comments like that, that it would seriously annoy many patients to be repetitivly asked the same question. I also told her that I basically already do this, but I don't want to follow a formula. She replied that many people, especially the CNAs aren't doing this, that probably most nursing staff was, and that this was more to get the CNAs to interact better, and that they would be the ones to do the check sheet. She said that they don't expect you to say the same thing each time, just use that as a guideline.
Well, since I already do this I don't have a big problem, except that the charting will be totally obnoxious and meaningless because I'll most likely hurry through it. Since I work in the ICU, it won't be to bad, but when I float to Med/Surg it will be a PITA to complete all this extra charting. The check off sheet will not be a part of the permanant chart, but will be collected each day and reviewed by the unit managers. I feel sorry for them, that sounds like a dreary task.
Honestly, there are nurses on our Med/Surg unit who sit at the nurse's station quite a bit, so I do think there is a problem that this is trying to rectify. But it's making a lot more charting for everyone. :angryfire
