Is this normal?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I work at a small urban hospital. I've been told that the health care in this region "sucks". I'm a front line RN and hold no decision making power (except when it comes to the patient care....you know..) recently, they've (they, them.. you know) closed beds. In my floor alone, they closed a whole unit. Now they have decided to cohabitate patients. They'll admitt a woman into a bed, then three hours later in the middle of the night, they'll admit a man into the same room. I am NOT allowed to say "no, you can't do that". We've been told that this is common practice in "other hospitals". But, I'm not sure of that. Also, the geniuses put up these new machanical lifts that are hooked up to the ceiling. But now we can't close the curtains because the tracks to the lifts are in the way.

Is this common practice at your hospital? Do the geniuses at your hospital make the same silly decisions as the geniuses at my hospital do?

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

NO way would anyone put in a male and female in the same room at any of the facilities in my area (unless it was a odd situation like we did have a woman and her father in the same room because the woman was her fathers caretaker and needed to be there for any information...but even that one was severely frowned upon!).

As far as the lifts...heck I wouldn't complain if we had them! LOL! But yes...real good one there, great pre planning! LOL! Sounds typical, sounds typical in any job/facility to have the lowest paid/bid company do things LOL!

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

The hospital I work in has converted to all private rooms in all units. Hippa regulations along with personal privacy and 'gobs' of infectious stuff makes this a bit smarter.

The 'gobs' include all those things we dont find until the 3rd or 4th day after admission.

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I wouldnt doubt it--I see so many people trying to make medical decisions and it is just scary. I have seen "them" do pretty stupid things. I also have heard from patients that one of our local hospitals is putting men and women together but I still have a hard time believing that.

Although I did work in a hospital a few years ago that had a large room for an ICU that consisted of three beds with 3 curtains in between the beds.

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Hello, Everyone

I would not place a female into a room with a male unless it was her husband or family member. I would tell the female of the policy prior of her in the room with a male. She would have the choice of acceptancing of the room assignment or rejecting the room assignment. Also, I would tell a male as well of the policy and etc.

I have a problem with the cohabitate in a hospital. I believe there will be some negative reactions and incidences with this procedure. For example, a young male and female in the same room, the female ends up pregnant and the parents would want to sue. Hmm, Nah, cannot picture and I would not accepted the responsibility for any incident that may occur by placing a male and female in the same room.

Nah, I would not take part in this procedure without CYA. I would have everyone sign paper/s giving consent, understanding the policy, Clear from any mind alterating medication, policy (sign off) and to report any incidents as soon as possilbe. No way I will be sitting a court room because a hospital policy by someone who thought about the ideal and greedy for money. Nah, no way.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

I'd never agree to that, either as a nurse or as a patient or even as the family member of a patient. Absolutely not.

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Specializes in NICU.

I've been thinking reeeeeeeeeally hard whether I've ever seen this, and the only place I have is infants on my peds rotation.

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Males and femals in the same room is abolutely not acceptable at my hospital. I was under the impression there were state laws against it here. My hospital will transfer people out before placing a male and female together. The only acception to this would be if the pts were fmaily members. It has happened were spouses are both admitted to the same room. I just can't think of the liability to the hospital if something happened in a cohabitated room. Even geriatric pts have sexual urges.

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No this is not common practice in Ontario or anywhere else in North America. Has anyone contacted OHA, CNO, or ONA? I'm sure they will tell you that you DO have the right to refuse to do this. What are they thinking?:smackingf

I have seen patients refuse care from nurses based on gender (d/t culture/religion), I can only imagine the reaction if these same patients were placed in the same room with a member of the opposite gender.

I have seen married couples or relatives admitted to the same room, which in that situation I see absolutely no problem with. This situations also are not common occurrences either. Pediatric is also an area where you may see children of the same sex admitted to the same room, again not the same thing.

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No this is not common practice in Ontario or anywhere else in North America. Has anyone contacted OHA, CNO, or ONA? I'm sure they will tell you that you DO have the right to refuse to do this. What are they thinking?:smackingf

I have seen patients refuse care from nurses based on gender (d/t culture/religion), I can only imagine the reaction if these same patients were placed in the same room with a member of the opposite gender.

I have seen married couples or relatives admitted to the same room, which in that situation I see absolutely no problem with. This situations also are not common occurrences either. Pediatric is also an area where you may see children of the same sex admitted to the same room, again not the same thing.

hmmm.... interesting..... recently, a patient contacted our local newspaper to complain about this issue. One of the administrators told the paper that this is common practice in other regions and hospitals. I thought that was just plain weird to say. But I also hear that things are different in this region than other regions of Ontario. But, enough about that. It feels like things are out of control and we just have to "suck it up" and deal with it. Sometimes, it's hard to have a positive attitude at work when I know that deep in my heart that some things around here are just plain weird/unethical. I mean, if this really isn't happening in other parts of Ontario and North America and I know that it's wrong, why am I just sitting here and complaining about it? I should be doing something about it, but whenever I say something, no one listens to me. And this isn't the only thing that I take issue with.

To what degree should I expect to take my "patient advocacy" skills? To what degree should I defend my employers? Most of the time, I'm just too busy to spend any time to think about what's going on because the patients need what little time I have to spend with them. Maybe I just need to get this off my chest. Am I just getting way too political? Am I turning into one of those "burnt out nurses?"

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hmmm.... interesting..... recently, a patient contacted our local newspaper to complain about this issue. One of the administrators told the paper that this is common practice in other regions and hospitals. I thought that was just plain weird to say. But I also hear that things are different in this region than other regions of Ontario. But, enough about that. It feels like things are out of control and we just have to "suck it up" and deal with it. Sometimes, it's hard to have a positive attitude at work when I know that deep in my heart that some things around here are just plain weird/unethical. I mean, if this really isn't happening in other parts of Ontario and North America and I know that it's wrong, why am I just sitting here and complaining about it? I should be doing something about it, but whenever I say something, no one listens to me. And this isn't the only thing that I take issue with.

To what degree should I expect to take my "patient advocacy" skills? To what degree should I defend my employers? Most of the time, I'm just too busy to spend any time to think about what's going on because the patients need what little time I have to spend with them. Maybe I just need to get this off my chest. Am I just getting way too political? Am I turning into one of those "burnt out nurses?"

Did you notice that the administrator did not say which hospitals or which regions? My question to this person would be where and in what context does this occur? For instance in an out-patient setting, it is not unusual for men and women to be next to each (on separate carts of course:chuckle ) in an open area type of setting, or in the same room if it is not, it depends on how the area is structured. It is also a temporary situation since these people will only be there for a limited amount of time. It is not the same as admitting 2 patients of the same sex on a unit into the same room.

Sometimes we need to advocate behind the scenes using our own personal time. What I mean by that is writing letters to legislators, contacting the proper people, and organizing as a united front.

OHA accredits hospitals in Ontario and I do not see OHA considering this issue acceptable:

http://www.oha.com/Client/OHA/OHA_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/page/Contact+Us

The CNO may also be able to provide you information to effectively advocate for your patients:

http://www.cno.org/site/contact.html

They also have a 1-800 number you will see on that page.

ONA can provide you with information in regards to what is within your rights as an employee:

http://www.ona.org/contact_us/index.html

To what degree a nurse takes her patient advocacy will be determined by that individual nurse. It's not really a question I can answer for you.

Employer-employee loyalty has to be a two-way street. Sometimes you may have to ask yourself whether your employer is being loyal in a situation to you when making determinations of this nature. Frankly, they've put the staff at your facility in a very difficult position, you will be the ones dealing with the fall-out from this decision.

You mentioned a patient writing in to a local newspaper about this issue, any staff write in, even anonymously to express their viewpoint?

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