I have been a nurse on a med surge floor for 2 years. I am always the last nurse to leave in the evening. I work from 3 to 11. I can not chart until after I give my report 95 percent of the time. I do not take lunch or breaks. I am always out on the floor with my patients or calling MDs, etc. I look around me and see the other nurses charting and able to take a break or at least chart and eat at the same time. I figured these nurses had a system or some knowledge that I did not posess for time management. I asked most of the nurses on my shift how they were able to get out on time and most evenings get a break. I was surprised at their answers. The overwhelming consensus was that they lumped their med passes together. One nurse told me that if she had 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000 meds due she would give them all at 1830. Another told me she would give her 2000, 2100, 2200 meds all together. Most nurses would gather all of their patients meds together at the beginning of shift so they would not have to walk back and forth to the med room. I am not criticizing or bashing anyone here but does this not go against what was battered into our heads over and over in nursing- namely the 5 rights of med administration and patient safety?
I fully understand why these nurse do this. We have computers on wheels that are cumbersome and time consuming to drag in and out of the rooms to scan the meds and the patients ID bracelets. It is very time consuming. These nurses want to go home to their lives and do not want management on their backs about OT.
I thought all of this time I was a lousy nurse with poor time management skills. I am doing my job in a safe way and I get good comments from the patients but I get spoken to by management all of the time about overtime.
The nurses who take shortcuts are perceived as the "good" nurses because they rarely get OT. Even the per diem nurses who float to different units pass meds this way. I get stressed out most evenings about OT. I had a nurse tell me just last night that I take a long time because I am doing things the right way. I think there is something wrong with the system if you are told you are takeing too long because you are doing things the right way. Even thinking about passing medciations the way these nurses do makes me feel guilty. I am sure if there was a med such as an antibiotic due at a certain time that this medication would certainly not be "lumped" together at a convenient time for the nurse.
The only nurses that do not do this are third shift nurses because there are not many meds on that shift or brand new nurses. Is this a common practice? Is this how nurses get done on time?
