Mothering?

Short of nagging constantly, I don't know how to get these things put to the top of the list either. I have considered discipline for it because technically they are not performing if they are not doing these things. Like I said, I have the same problems so I will watch this thread. Sorry I don't have any good advice for you. ccccc

The problem with discipline is, the person standing by the cup, or angio, or whatever else may not be the one who left it there. It's hard for me to tell exactly who is responsible for the mess.

I too feel like "mom"- always picking up after everyone, often having to nag them about documentation, customer service, etc...and these are professionals!

sigh....

But it is the attitude that it's not mine or I didn't do it, that can get frustrating. If everyone would take ownership of their unit and take care of one little thing that is a glaring no, no...it would promote such a better environment.

Even if the person standing by the "out of place item" may not have been the one to do it, they still should be aware that it is out of place. If you start holding everyone accountable, they may start straightening each other out via peer pressure. This approach can either work really well or backfire by making everyone unite against you. You have to guage the type of staff you have in order to tell if it is worth a try. Something else you could try... Assign one person per shift to a trouble area. For example, we had a problem with the IV and phlebotomy trays being stocked. People would use them and throw trash/wrappers back in the tray and put in the cabinet in a mess. If you needed the tray in an emergency, you wasted precious minutes running back to the supply room because what you thought you had was just an empty package. If the staff has to take turns makin sure the trays are clean and stocked every shift, they will be more likely to take care of them when they use them and encourage their co-workers to do the same. We used the same method with other areas, like the top of med carts.

Whatever it is - take it. The staff start freaking out when whatever they had is missing. If it is a drink at the station - it goes in the trash. The staff learned really quick to stop leaving their drinks there - I didn't give warnings. They want a chart that they left out in the open - they have to come get it from me. Sounds pretty ridiculous I know, but it helped some people get on the ball.

The issue is Pride in their unit and themselves. For some reason the workforce doesn't understand that they own the issue. If you have a Unit Coucil (shared governance team) on your unit ask then to focus on creating a culture od respect and pride. It has worked for me.

Make sure your nurses have enough help, are not overwhelmed with too many patients, too much unnecessary charting, there are enough PCTs, so the nurses don't have to juggle 2 jobs at once, and your nurses feel supported and valued. Then they will start caring about little things like leaving drinks out, labels, etc. Sometimes nurses feel like surviving the day with their patients is more important than labeling a vial. I'm a staff nurse right now, and have done charge in my day. There was nothing that made me care less about stuff like that then being overworked, understaffed, and underappreciated. JMHO.

What Steve said.

We tried assigning duties to various people. You are in charge of this desk. He is in charge of the glucometer and other equipment being wiped down & put away. She is in charge of ------------. After a while people got the hint. We reverted to that once in 4-5 years.