Is your central supply room locked on the 11-7 shift?

Published

I work different shifts at my LTC. The nurses on night shift use to always get the med carts stocked up with supplies for the day. Now management has taken the key away from the night shift. So now when we come to work in the mornings-no water cups, no medication cups and no supplies nothing. I was just curious if other LTC's refuse to allow night shift access to central supply? How do you think you would feel if you could not get into central supply on the 11-7 shift?

Specializes in LTC.
Places where I've worked always had a separate supply room/closet on each unit. It had a lot of equip but not anywhere like the total contents of the general supply room. Responsibility for stocking the floor's supplies varies from facility to facility.

But supervisor really does need a key. Even with that system in place, I've known supervisors to 'give' the keys over to some staff which DEFEATS the purpose of the key control. So is it any wonder that admin wants to control loss of equip/supplies?

As supervisor, I refuse to be a "go-fer". Unless the item is critical and UN-borrowable, I will restrict my trips to the supply room. The LESS I am in that room, the LESS I can be suspected of anything. But I do leave a note on the 24 hr unit report that supplies were short and need replacements.

As for making out incident reports, they're probably looked upon as "nuisance reports" by admin, and may only make it to 'the round file'.

On a similar note, I find that inaccessibility to the kitchen is another major nuisance.

A major, major issue to be considered is that those areas are inaccessible for fire alarms or for 'lost resident searches' (and yes, pts have been found in those locked rooms).

I have the kitchen problem as well. Many times in the 6 wks I've been working nights at this facility my dialysis pts that leave early have been without a lunch. How awful is that? Nurses have keys to central on nights so that's not a problem. But sending my residents to dialysis hungry and with no food kills me. I make complaints every time it happens yet it happens again. At a loss at this point.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Nurses had the keys for all the supplies on all shifts. management didn't allow CNAs in the supply closet/room...they had to ask us for the supplies.

It's unrealistic and non-productive. you have to stand up and let them know you need supplies. maybe both parties can reach a consensus, and some supplies that you mentioned can be stashed away somewhere.. they have issues with theft, and the only thing they did is possibly deprive the patients of quality care by stopping access to supplies.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

LOL, ridiculous. Only the nurses carry the central supply key; however, my facility seems to have lost the key to one of the closets where the gloves and hand sanitizers are stored so we are running out of those essential items.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have all the keys. But when I opened the supply room, I couldn't find what I need. I asked and the answer was that they haven't order the supply yet.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in retired LTC.

to bluegeegoo2 - Agree that the kitchen problem is because of my early dialysis or other early appt pts. To remedy the problem, I keep a box of instant oatmeal/farina to use for those early pts. I've loaned the packets to other floors if needed. I've also supplied a big box of favorite cereal for one dialysis pt who only ate that cereal.

No matter what I've tried in all my years in LTC, I've never found an answer to this dilemma. It just falls on deaf ears!!! Isn't it pitiful that pts would otherwise leave the place hungry? Pitiful!!!

That's a battle I'm not fighting anymore. The price of a box of cereal or oatmeal is easy enough to provide food for those pts.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We can get into the central supply closet but I probably worked there for 6 months before I found out the code to get in. At one point they were making us sign out wipes and most recently they have taken away the medical grade nitrile gloves, now they are only reserved for people with allergies to latex. The other cheap poor fitting gloves are terrible for giving suppositories or for wound care, they dont fit as well and stick like crazy to tape or any other dressing that is sticky.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion