crushing pills

[nursejanedough]

I was reminded of my major pet peeve while responding to the "personal alarm" topic. Please, please do not pound on the med cart with that pill crusher to crush meds. You can hold that pill crusher/pulverizer (or whatever you want to call it) up in the air and it is much quieter. There is no need for the loud banging. (Go take your frustrations out somewhere else). I have told other nurses, administrators, and trainee nurses how loud it is when they bang on that med cart to crush pills. Just look around and see how you are affecting those around you. That loud banging bothers the elderly and me too. Nobody listens to me. I go visit where I work and they are still banging away. Please God, don't let me go to a nursing home. Ex-RN

[night owl]

Can't stand the pounding either. When I have to crush pills, I do it on the wooden handrail in the hallway. For some reason (I guess maybe it's the wood) it's not so loud, and it Seems to muffle the noise.

[night owl]

Forgot to mention, the pills are in their own little packets so it keeps the crushed pill from falling all over the place.

[janine3&5]

Pts are constantly asking what all the pounding is on our floor; meds are usually crushed at a little work area right outside each pt's room. The most popular method seems to be banging away with a can of Ensure!

Then, the other day I was bathing a pt when the nurse came in with his meds. She came in the room, said, "Oh I need to crush these for him, be right back." Less than a minute later she reappeared- I hadn't heard any banging, so I asked her how she crushed them. Turns out she holds the little unopened packet in the inside of the door frame and just closes the door. Worked great, just have to watch the fingers!

[Heather27]

The only thing BANGING accomplishes is to wreck the med cups or package that the pill is in...I find that "rolling" the pounder thingy (mortar? pestle? which??) is more effective anyway...smooshes them up better...of course, I'm gonna have Carpal Tunnel by the time I'm 32, but...hey... :)

[tinkertoys]

We recently purchased new pill crushers for all our med carts, called "Silent Knight". They work on the same principle as a door hinge. Just place the pills in the disposable plastic pouch,set it in the hinged area, and press down on the lever. The only sound is from an occasional squeaking hinge It crushes things up really well, and we don't have all our patients yelling "come in!" in answer to our pill pounding.

[nursedarlene]

Those are some good ideas.........I use a washcloth on the med cart under my pill crusher.........this seems to help cut down on the noise too.

[km rn]

Dittos on the "silent knight" - we started using them about 6 months ago and they work great.

Many creative ideas...but I wouldn't doubt if a surveyor might take issue with door hinges, etc. I guess it depends on your survey team - but ours would try to cite something based on it.

[patmostoi]

ever wonder why nurses are calm and dont have seizures and why our bones are good. wonder what our blood levels are for certain meds after we crush them?

[anniek]

In the past we have always crushed our meds by the Pounding method, the facility where I work now uses a pair of plyers, each pill is individually packaged but if it is out of a bottle I put it in a souffle cup and no more pounding.

To bad we couldn't find a way to silence some other noises around us this easily.