Doesn't It Want To Make You Scream, part 3

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

PICC line dressing change. Standard procedure to measure the length of the catheter that has migrated out of the insertion site. Our policy also says measure the arm circumference. Since it's the year 2012, wouldn't you know the unit of measurement is centimeters????? One not so bright nurse measured in INCHES! That was bad enough but she didn't even check to see what the previous measurement was. By the way, she's not a new nurse and has worked in an ER. Yikes.

[amoLucia]

I once had an admission with an infected abdominal surgical wound that went from beyond hip to hip. It was so long that measuring in cm didn't compute. When I say it was 40 inches, you could better understand the severity of that wound.

We had both measurements, but 40 inches was more understandable when you think of it as a yard stick + inches! We HEALED it!

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Standard acceptable practice is to measure in centimeters. AND to check the previous measurement regardless of the unit of measure used.

[amoLucia]

Standard acceptable practice is to measure in centimeters. AND to check the previous measurement regardless of the unit of measure used.

You are right - but my pt was a new admission. I started the baseline measurements (cm & inches) and continued it subsequently. I only brought it up because 100 cm sounded so foreign, but we all understood 40 inches easily.

[Vinniesguy]

You may understand inches but some of us only understand centimetres. If you told me a wound was 40 inches I would look at you blankly then have to find a converter on the Internet!