drinks at the nurses station

It just cracks me up to read that management has so much time on their hands that they have to walk around throwing out nurses' water bottles and soda cans. Yet, I know it's true--I've had it happen to me in the operating room--chastised for having a soda can out by the scrub sink; by middle management, of course. When asked why anesthesia was allowed to eat a burrito IN THE ROOM--during a case--met with only a stoney-faced non-reply.

All I can do is shake my head and say, nurses, TAKE THE BREAKS allotted you according to state and federal law--don't be martyrs. If you are allotted a 15 minute break every 4 hours--TAKE IT!!!!!! If you are allotted a 30 or 45 minute lunch, (depending on your shift)---take it!!!

So much of this nonsense falls into the category of "sacred cows" anyway. Trust me; I have seen the same issues--over the past 30 years-- brought up, only to fall by the wayside and then be brought up again like clockwork, every 5 years or so. Middle management can, and does, do anything and everything to justify their existence--

No one will take care of you except you.

Water, soda and coffee at the nurses' station have little to do with nosocomial infections. Pay more attention to good handwashing and less attention to who is drinking what during the course of a workday.

Gosh--I miss the good old '80s, where we would leave our full cups of coffee right outside our rooms--the surgeons would carry their full cups of coffee to the scrub sinks--the supervisor, when she came by your room to say hello, would have a cup of coffee or a can of soda in her hands--funny, we never had any nosocomial infections that I ever heard of....nor have I seen an operating room overrun by cockroaches, LOL!!

If anything, I wish that middle management would spend less time policing our every move and more time monitoring good housekeeping practices. One time, I moved an O.R. table to the side--guess what was under it? A $5 bill. Now, do you REALLY think the last shift of housekeepers mopped or wet vac'd under that table? Or the shift before them? It scares me to imagine just how long that bill had been there...

And don't even get me started about bits of bloody suture pushed into the corners of the rooms....

Stevierae is right. Start insisting on getting breaks because you are unable to have water at the NS and managment will suddenly find a compromise.

....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.

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 ******* sick people. patients are sick, employees are sick. i mean jeez, backoff the water bottles.

my 2
kris

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....

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.

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!

[quote=donmomofnine]....and nothing ever gets spilled, right?[quote]

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.

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.

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.