Name a stupid policy/idea your facility thought would fly

allnurses Guide · May 11, 2012

here's what the ceo said, "this small change will humanize what can be a difficult and frightening experience for patients – putting a name to a face and a face to a community."

um...

i don't think many of my pt's would trust me if they knew what neighborhood i grew up in...

lol!

sorry, my hometown was a hood...

lol!

tntrn, ASN, RN · May 11, 2012

As a big Miss America fan, the vision of me, with my name tag announcing my hometown in Kansas, and wearing a big sunflower on one pocket and a Jayhawk on the other just makes me crack up. And maybe a tiara. Yes, definitely a tiara....and a sash!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 11, 2012

This thread popped to mind yesterday when I was getting ready to start NG feeds on my little person. A while back we were issued with a "recommendation" from our dieticians that when providing low-volume continuous enteral feeds to peds patients, we should be changing the syringes and tubing a minimum of Q4H or Q2H for "expressed mother's milk" as we're expected to call it now. For bolus feeds to any patient, we were to change the whole setup every feed. Guess how long that lasted?

On the topic of patient meals... they centralized food preparation for the entire province a couple of years ago. ALL patient meals are prepared and packaged in plastic containers in a factory setting then trucked to the hospitals from there in cold storage units. When it's time to deliver the meals they're "rethermalized" and delivered on a cardboard tray. We have no access to food for new admissions or patients whose diets have been advanced until the new diet orders have been entered into the computer system. Usually by the time the order works its way through the system the patient has been transferred out or has gone home! We even have to order Jell-O patient specific.

tokmom, BSN, RN · May 11, 2012

This thread popped to mind yesterday when I was getting ready to start NG feeds on my little person. A while back we were issued with a "recommendation" from our dieticians that when providing low- volume continuous enteral feeds to peds patients, we should be changing the syringes and tubing a minimum of Q4H or Q2H for "expressed mother's milk" as we're expected to call it now. For bolus feeds to any patient, we were to change the whole setup every feed. Guess how long that lasted?On the topic of patient meals... they centralized food preparation for the entire province a couple of years ago. ALL patient meals are prepared and packaged in plastic containers in a factory setting then trucked to the hospitals from there in cold storage units. When it's time to deliver the meals they're "rethermalized" and delivered on a cardboard tray. We have no access to food for new admissions or patients whose diets have been advanced until the new diet orders have been entered into the computer system. Usually by the time the order works its way through the system the patient has been transferred out or has gone home! We even have to order Jell-O patient specific.

You need to have hotpockets and juice boxes on hand, lol

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · May 12, 2012

... Now if that mandate had come out for the nurses to do it... I guarantee I'd still be stripping linens after every discharge.

We are required to. Something about "if patient left something in the bed" or some other such foolishness. Housekeeping will WAIT at the door until the bed and room are stripped. They attempted the "you can deliver trays" also.....

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · May 12, 2012

Housekeeping will WAIT at the door until the bed and room are stripped.

I'm a CNA and our housekeepers do the same thing. If I know ahead of time that the bed was scheduled to be cleaned I don't mind stripping it, but it drives me crazy when there are like 8 call lights on and a bunch of alarms going off and the housekeeper is following me around bugging me about it. Wouldn't it be easier to just do it yourself??? It must be nice to have that much time on your hands!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 12, 2012

You need to have hotpockets and juice boxes on hand, lol

That did occur to me!

KelRN215, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

We are required to. Something about "if patient left something in the bed" or some other such foolishness. Housekeeping will WAIT at the door until the bed and room are stripped. They attempted the "you can deliver trays" also.....

When I was an aide, we were required to strip the beds after a patient was discharged. Housekeeping also made all the beds after they cleaned the bedspace though. When I was a hospital nurse, we didn't have to strip the beds but there were certain things in the rooms that only the nurse could remove. Like, if there was an old bag of IV fluid on a pump, housekeeping wouldn't clean the room and would stand at the desk until they found a nurse who would go throw it in the trash.

I also recall being told once that, if a patient vomited on the floor, the nurses had to clean it up before housekeeping would come and mop the floor.

NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN · May 12, 2012

After reading these, I am so glad that our bedside nurses create most of our policies in collabaration with the education department. Administrators are only involved at the very end to sign the policy.

allnurses Guide · May 12, 2012

Don't get me started on housekeeping.

I had a bed that needed to be cleaned and the housekeeper was right there.

I told her and she copped an attitude and said she wasn't going to do it unless I put it in a request in the computer.

Our housekeeping won't do a darn thing unless you put it in the computer... and put it in 100% correct... and yes, they will pick it apart.

If you say "bed A" instead of "bed B", they'll leave and make you do it all over.

Why?

1) It's the stupid system we use for requests

2) It is the only display of power the housekeepers have, and by jove, they're going to use it!

3) The PTB that came up with this system don't have to use it.

Morainey, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

I like it when we need housekeeping during night shift, which is always just to clean up a spill of some kind, which we ALWAYS try to help with before they get there, and you have to page them twice if not three times and get a horrible attitude when they finally call back. Sigh.

sandyfeet · May 12, 2012

That....is the right question.
Here's what the CEO said, "This small change will humanize what can be a difficult and frightening experience for patients putting a name to a face and a face to a community."
Still rings pretty hollow with me.
I'd be for it if we could pick our hometown. "Hi, I'm MN-Nurse, and I hail from Gotham City."

Funkytown, Paradise City, Suffragette City, Margaritaville...:)