drinks at the nurses station

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I have just recently joined the management team in the ER where I have been a staff nurse. Drinks in the nurses station has been an ongoing battle for as long as I have been a nurse. My manager simply comes out to the floor and procedes to throw any drinks in the trash, this action makes people mad and they resent her for it. I know that OSHA regulations state we cannot have food/drinks in area where contamination from blood borne pathogens and such may happen. My question is, is there a better way to get compliance from staff? I know as a busy ER staff nurse that it is hard to excuse yourself to the breakroom to get a drink and I always kept a covered cup with water hidden at the nurses station. So its hard for me as a new manager to expect compliance from my staff when I know how hard it is myself. Any suggestions?

....and nothing ever gets spilled, right? I don't have to feel bad about no drinks at the desk because our staff get breaks and they can easily get a drink whenever they want one.

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where i do my clinical this semester no drinks are allowed on the floor. I admit to being one of those with a water bottle permanetly affixed to my hand. in the supply room there is a water/ice machine thing for pt. well the staff get cups write there name on it and stick it in the window. well someone (still haven't firgured out who) keeps going in there and throwing them out!!!!!! so everytime i go in there i just get a new one and start the process again. i don't see what the big deal is. why can patients have drinks in there room and we can't keep drinks out of sight for some sips now and then? I bet if you walked into a JCAHO office right now everyone would have drinks at their desks. i am sorry but i get my breaks but i can't go four hours without a drink. if i catch a cold or the flu at work it won't be because of my water bottle it becasue there is someone hacking and sneezing all over the place. why? because we work with friggin sick people. patients are sick, employees are sick. i mean jeez, backoff the water bottles.

my 2

kris

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I agree totally. One does get parched from all that running around and besides, some of us get a little hypoglycemic too. We still must take good care of ourselves if we are to take the best possible care of others.

Now if only we could get those foleys and leg bags so our bladders don't blow up to the size of exxon tankers....

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
I have just recently joined the management team in the ER where I have been a staff nurse. Drinks in the nurses station has been an ongoing battle for as long as I have been a nurse. My manager simply comes out to the floor and procedes to throw any drinks in the trash, this action makes people mad and they resent her for it.

My nurse manager is very easy going where drinks are concerned. I think too easy. We have drinks sitting all over the place, hot 1/2 full cokes and cold 1/2 full coffee. When I get there I throw out all the leftovers from the previous shift and throught out the day continue to do the same to my shift. If a cup has a name on it or still has ice floating or still has steaming rising I leave it alone. I think it's disgraceful to see cups sitting "all" over the place. I wish people would pick up after theirselves. :angryfire

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Dutch Girl ~ that's exactly what my lounges next to the nursing stations look like! And it just keeps building up! I have a suspicion that is what our nursing station would look like if staff could keep their drinks out there!:)

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....and nothing ever gets spilled, right?

Just LAST WEEK, a soft drink was spilled at the nursing station. No documentation got wet, and the spill was, for all intents and purposes, cleaned up. What no one realized was that some of it dripped down into part of the power supply stuff for the computers at the desk. The next morning, the computer went dead -- just "POOF", gone. When the IT guy came up to check it, some of the connections were absolutely gooey, and one component was just "toast".

That one spilled drink is going to end up costing about seven hundred dollars out of the unit's budget, so it's more than just an IC issue. :stone

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I work in the ER, they just started to crack down on us about drinking at the nursing station. The doctors however don't listen. They ALL bring there drinks to the nursing station and sit there drinking right in front of all of us.this also includes the managers and directors, they will walk right into the nursing station drinking there coffee. We were told to put our drinks in the Med Room, and this is okay with infection control. Gee, they prime IV fluids, blood, etc in there. I put my name on my drinks, only to walk in, one day, seeing someone else drinking from my cup, by mistake. As you know the ER is a busy place. Now most of us have been sick. I wonder why! I now don't leave a drink, instead, when I can, I run in to the med room , open a soda, take a few sips and throw it away. In 25 years working in many hospitals, I have never seen a problem with a drink at your work station. Most hospitals, like this one I work at. Is all computers and everything is done in the patient's room and then tubed to lab. and as the other person stated, the real barrier to spreading infection is HANDWASHING.

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Don't get me wrong on this issue about drinking at the nurse's station. There are pro and cons to this, spills etc. And I understand that, But when your Team leaders, managers, directors and doctor break the rules And your managers come in at 4am to see if anyone has a drink at there station, while they are walking around with a Starbuck in hand. What are you to think! How important is this issue then? It just seems to be a power thing.

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How about all the holiday snacks from the families and doctors as well as managerds. But yet we are not to eat or drink in the nursing station. Do they want to answer ur patients needs when u take ur 30 min break. I can bearly go pee without hearing my name called over the intercom.

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I hear ya! Come to think of it, I haven't seen any holiday snacks or food here. For a top 100 hospital, its very cold. I am not very happy here, moved from Florida to NC 6 months ago. It seems to be more of a Power things with this no drinks at your work place. The call outs have been BIG here, since they put this no drinking rule.because I think, we are drinking out of each others cups. and maybe not knowing it and shareing our germs. I find myself more thirty and have less energy, and getting heartburn, because I drink too fast, did you read what one person wrote, comparing this to having a cigarettes. that this is more of a habit. I must be very addicted, because I have been doing this "not drinking" thing at the nurses station for about a month and a half now and still feel the same as I did from the begining Dehydrated!! Maybe I need to go to Rehab! Even some of the doctors have been saying Its very UNhealthy, for us to do this, as they sip on there drinks in front of us. and even stated more unhealthy for night workers. Which I am.

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Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

It is a Joint Comminssion ruling as to no food or drinks in patient area, that includes the nursing station. We can have bottled water and that is it.

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Isn't water a drink? We can't even have that. So, you are saying the joint comminssion said it is okay to have water only at the nurses station? Don't get me wrong here. I understand and agree why we shouldn't eat or drink in patient areas. But what I don't agree with is the doctors,team leaders, manager and director drinking and sometimes eating [like walking around with a bag of chips] in patient's area. I have been in this field for 25 years, there is problems no matter where you go. But I have to tell you, this place takes the cake. So, for now. I'll hang in there, while looking elsewhere.

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