Meds. off floor taste YUMMY!

[NurCrystal22]

So, just curious as to what everyone else thinks about this. I've seen several nurses drop meds on the floor in front of their patients, pick them up, and give them anyways. Is this common? I asked one nurse about it and she said that it saves the hospital money... but I was taught that's not proper practice. So what do you think about this and what do you do when you drop meds?

~Crystal

[Burnt Out, ASN, RN]

If I drop a pill or so, I ALWAYS go get another one. I can't even think of taking one that has been on the hospital floor-yuck! :barf01:

[NurCrystal22]

Yeah, if I'm at home and I drop something on the floor, I might be tempted to eat it... DEPENDING on where I dropped it, I have a dog so I don't know how clean the floors really are. I mean they LOOK clean. LOL. Same with hospital floors, I think a lot of patients offer to take the pills anyway cause they don't want to cause the nurse the "trouble" of getting another one, and... well... the floor does LOOK clean. But with all that bacteria tracked from shoes from room to room, things getting spilled on the floor (like urine)..... ugh.... makes me gag just thinking about it. "I think I just threw-up in my mouth a little bit." .

~Crystal

[NurCrystal22]

So this is what the CDC says about hospital floors...

"Bacteria on hospital floors predominantly consist of skin organisms, e.g., coagulase-negative staphylococci, Bacillus spp., and diptheroids (22); S. aureus and Clostridium spp. can also be cultured. However, infection risk from contaminated floors is small. Gram-negative bacteria are rarely found on dry floors, but may be present after cleaning or a spill. Nevertheless, these organisms tend to disappear as the surface dries (23).

The survival of microbes on carpeting, however, is different: they are present in larger numbers on this surface and they pose a greater risk for infection. Therefore, carpets should be vacuumed daily and periodically steam cleaned. Carpeting should be avoided in high-risk areas because the cleaning process may aerosolize fungal spores. Regardless of the flooring chosen, it should be easily cleanable and water resistant (9)."

Alrighty then.

~Crystal

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

What???

I got sent home from clinical to change because I let my KNEE touch the floor when I bent down to adjust a feeding tube!!!

[DusktilDawn]

I'm surprised no one mentioned how often we are only given the EXACT amount of medication ONLY that the pt requires from pharmacy. I've had to wait 4 hours to have a dropped medication replaced, 4 hours and repeated calls. Heaven forbid you get a couple of spares when it comes to pills. That is a big factor where I work and why I see medications picked up off the floor and used. Really, is there a black market I don't know about for lopressor or zocor that I'm unaware of.

Only our nacrcotics are kept in the pyxis, so it's no big deal to get another pill and waste the dropped narcotic.

BTW no I don't think pills should be picked up off the floor and used.

[HappyNurse2005, RN]

I'm surprised no one mentioned how often we are only given the EXACT amount of medication ONLY that the pt requires from pharmacy. I've had to wait 4 hours to have a dropped medication replaced, 4 hours and repeated calls. Heaven forbid you get a couple of spares when it comes to pills. That is a big factor where I work and why I see medications picked up off the floor and used. Really, is there a black market I don't know about for lopressor or zocor that I'm unaware of.

Only our nacrcotics are kept in the pyxis, so it's no big deal to get another pill and waste the dropped narcotic

All of our meds are in the pyxis, thank goodness. If the pt has an odd med not stocked in pyxis normally, pharmacy puts it in "pt's own bin", accessable only by pyxis.

4 hours is insane to wait.

[DusktilDawn]

Absolutely HappyNurse, 4 hours to wait is too long. It's not only for medication that's been dropped, it can be 4 hours for new orders that were sent, or for STAT orders. 4 hours and repeated phone calls to pharmacy. Their attitude is that if I want the medication bad enough I should take a 10 minute hike both ways and get it. I've filled out numerous incident reports about this.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

As great as the temptation is, especially with the 4 hour waits that were mentioned above, it's just yucky. And to do it in front of a patient, that's just asking for trouble. I remember the devil on my shoulder one day trying to convince me that a dropped Levaquin was ok, it was an antibiotic so it would kill any germs that got on it, hehe. Then when I dropped the replacement, the devil got even louder. (How embarrassing is it to call the nursing supervisor after pharmacy leaves TWICE for the same dropped pill!!! Thought I'd get drug tested for sure!)

[NurCrystal22]

WoW, 4 hours?!?!?! :uhoh21: That's freaking ridiculous.

We have to call pharmacy to get our meds too, it usually takes 5-15... I can't imagine waiting 4hours!

~Crystal

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

Plainly gross. If a pill dropped on the hospital floor and your mother was a patient, would you give it to her? Of course not. Hey, I freak out when I see toddlers turned loose to crawl or walk barefoot on the hospital floor. Just plain unsanitary...anyway you look at it. No, the pill gets wasted.

[cursenurse]

well, i must be a terrible nurse, because i have picked up pills from off the floor. generally, it depends on what the pill is, and where it fell. when i was in school i broke a vicodin in half, and dropped half of it on the floor while popping it out of the blister pack at a pt's bedside. i was like, "oh dear, i'll have to get another one, you don't want this do you?" he was an older man, and was like, "i don't care, i'll take it!" i was so happy, i did not want to have to go back to my instructor and say that i needed to get another vicodin. now, if it is just a vitamin, or something easy to just go back to the cart and get, i will get another one, especially if it fell in someplace disgusting. i have taken pills off the floor myself, never at the hospital, but the dirtiest place was at a hotel. i had the worst h/a, and i dropped all the motrin on the floor. i picked all of them up, took two without a second thought. also, one good thing to remember is that most people don't practice good handwashing, if you've ever watched pt's in the bathroom, most don't wash hands or only rinse, so they are very germy anyway, and the occasional pill off the floor is not likely to hurt them.

[Aneroo, LPN]

well, i must be a terrible nurse, because i have picked up pills from off the floor. generally, it depends on what the pill is, and where it fell. when i was in school i broke a vicodin in half, and dropped half of it on the floor while popping it out of the blister pack at a pt's bedside. i was like, "oh dear, i'll have to get another one, you don't want this do you?" he was an older man, and was like, "i don't care, i'll take it!" i was so happy, i did not want to have to go back to my instructor and say that i needed to get another vicodin. now, if it is just a vitamin, or something easy to just go back to the cart and get, i will get another one, especially if it fell in someplace disgusting. i have taken pills off the floor myself, never at the hospital, but the dirtiest place was at a hotel. i had the worst h/a, and i dropped all the motrin on the floor. i picked all of them up, took two without a second thought. also, one good thing to remember is that most people don't practice good handwashing, if you've ever watched pt's in the bathroom, most don't wash hands or only rinse, so they are very germy anyway, and the occasional pill off the floor is not likely to hurt them.

As an ER nurse, you know better. Think about the stuff we get on our shoes when we're not wearing shoe covers. Blood, urine, emesis- think about what we bring in from outside. I wouldn't do that to a patient. They don't know how icky that floor is. -andrea