Name a stupid policy/idea your facility thought would fly

Nurses General Nursing

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A former facility thought they could multi task the housekeepers by having them be lab techs. If they were in a room cleaning, they could drop their mops and get a few vials of blood for us. That lasted about a month before it was thankfully stopped.

I remember watching them learn to draw blood. They were given a 30 min tutorial on a rubber arm.

My work has only my cell phone. So, I just turn it off. No problem.

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Do I ever know what you mean! I can not even get to my patient for the people in the room. Our door opens at 8 am and closes at 9 pm. Only suppose to be 2 family members in the room but that is a joke. Supposedly, Joint Commission likes the idea of open unit. What about HIPPA violations?????

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

tokmom,,what a great thread you started!

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Specializes in MDS RNAC, LTC, Psych, LTAC.

@ nursecard and MN- nurse.....That was the company too that had me doing the hash slinging along with meds.. LOL.. and they always need nurses and can't hire them. I wonder why.

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This happened a few years ago. One of our doctors wanted his office nurse to make rounds for him and write orders. This nurse was not even a BSN let alone an NP!! Most of us refused to take orders from this nurse--and rightly so as our state BON doesn't ALLOW us to take orders from nurses who are not "advanced practice." I don't know how our facility thought they could get away with that--except that the doc brings in lots of moola!

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
why hometowns?:icon_roll

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."

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Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.
no scheduled meal times. pts can call dietary at any time during the day and eat whatever they want (dietary has their diets, and can tell them "youve reached your carb limit for the day" or "you are on a low sodium diet, you cant have that"), whenever they want between the hours of 6:30a-6:30p..

problems i have with this as a PCA:

half of my elderly confused pts dont understand it and just expect them to bring them something for breakfast, lunch and dinner. dietary will allow any patient to skip one meal without asking questions, so if i dont go around and make sure everyone has ordered something for breakfast that wants something, they dont get breakfast and no body does anything unless they complain.. if the same thing happens for lunch, dietary will call their room around 2pm or so to ask what they want.. most of them dont answer the phone. ughh

when im going around trying to get my i&o's and meal percentages, i never know what time to check. if i go too early, some people havent eaten yet, go to late and dietary has taken their tray.

nursing considerations: when to give insulin/take blood sugar? i take blood sugars at 730, and insulin is given around 8/8:30.. how does that effect the people who woke up at 630 and ordered breakfast, or the people who wait until 11?

its really inconvenient. were the only campus out of 5 in the network that does this, and i dont see it changing anytime soon.

That is how our hospital is. I personally like it and so do most of our patients. Yeah, it takes an extra minute to check on those confused patients but at our hospital at least, you can order the whole day ahead of time so if you think you may get behind you could order breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at the same time. And as a nurse, I just give the insulin when they eat. Usually not an issue.

On topic with the thread: We are getting rid of sitters, I don't know the outcome since it won't happen until next week but I am betting our fall numbers will be way up!

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We got rid of sitters a year or more ago. Now we have alarms on most beds beeping all the time. And now we just got chair alarms. Well, we had a problem with one pt falling and guess what? The family complained, talked "law suit" and now a sitter. We do not even provide sitters at a price. We tell family they need to call an agency.

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Specializes in ICU-my whole life!!.
My work has only my cell phone. So, I just turn it off. No problem.

Hey! We think alike. I turn my off as well.

They need me that bad? They will have to send someone to my house.

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
tokmom,,what a great thread you started!

It's been a real eye opener. Some of these are unbelievable. I mean.. just...so...stupid.

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
We got rid of sitters a year or more ago. Now we have alarms on most beds beeping all the time. And now we just got chair alarms. Well, we had a problem with one pt falling and guess what? The family complained, talked "law suit" and now a sitter. We do not even provide sitters at a price. We tell family they need to call an agency.

Chair and bed alarms work IF you have the staff to answer them.:uhoh3: Has management thought of that?

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.
It's been a real eye opener. Some of these are unbelievable. I mean.. just...so...stupid.
Stupid ideas from not so bright managers and desk jockeys. Did I say that? YOU BET I DID!
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