less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors

One hour before and one hour after, that's the rule right? In LTC settings, the med nurse is required to lock up the med cart for feeding breakfast and lunch! It can take up to a half hour for each feeding. So..a total of 1-1 half hour has been taken away from me giving meds. I have worked on units with 55 pts with one med nurse ME! Do dressings, pick up orders, tube feedings...well you know the drill.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The beauty of INLP is that it is composed mostly of volunteer nurses (there are a few doctors who are members of INLP), and most of us are regular "floor nurses" just like many of you out there. The dedication of these nurses whom I think are pioneers in this kind of nursing leadership is admirable.

Remember, INLP's main goal is to PREVENT medication errors (by nurses). A speaker once said in one of the continuing education classes that I attended several years ago, "If you haven't committed a med. error, you haven't been a nurse long enough yet."

INLP is not 100% fool-proof, but if it only can reduce med. error by even 1%, then it had prevented medication errors from being committed, but studies have shown that INLP has reduced med. error by nearly 88 percent!!!

Nurses, nurse educators and administrators, take a note of this.


Elwyn RN

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Daly City,

I applaud the goals of the INLP; however, I think much of the skepticism comes from not believing that the recommendations will be realistically implemented. Most of us have insane workloads already; recommendations that increase the amount of time required to pass meds just don't seem realistic when you are being hounded to "manage your time better." Furthermore, management expects us to be at the beck and call of every pt no matter how many of them there are. Call lights must never be allowed to ring more than a minute, etc. Customer service is all-important, and many customers these days are so self-centered that they don't care if you are passing meds to someone else and shouldn't be interrupted.

I think that the recommendations are worthy, as is the goal, but it is going to take a lot of time and education to change the culture on the units, as well as convincing administration that reducing med errors is cost-effective enough to be worth reducing workloads in order to make it happen.

This needs to be blown up and posted at every healthcare facility.

[quote=catshowlady;3948685]Daly City,

I applaud the goals of the INLP; however, I think much of the skepticism comes from not believing that the recommendations will be realistically implemented. Most of us have insane workloads already; recommendations that increase the amount of time required to pass meds just don't seem realistic when you are being hounded to "manage your time better." Furthermore, management expects us to be at the beck and call of every pt no matter how many of them there are. Call lights must never be allowed to ring more than a minute, etc. Customer service is all-important, and many customers these days are so self-centered that they don't care if you are passing meds to someone else and shouldn't be interrupted.

I think that the recommendations are worthy, as is the goal, but it is going to take a lot of time and education to change the culture on the units, as well as convincing administration that reducing med errors is cost-effective enough to be worth reducing workloads in order to make it happen.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It took a lot of time to educate, convince and change the culture of nurses in the INLP-member hospitals. INLP is a work in progress and admittedly it is not perfect, but with INLP conditions are so much safer.

There were a lot of initial negativity among the nurses when INLP was first started. But after the nurses were EDUCATED about INLP, most of the nurses adopted the recommendations of INLP. Likewise, a lot of nurses said that they DID NOT have enough time to adopt the recommendations of INLP. Guess what, their initial skepticisms and doubts, like yours, were erased ONCE THE NURSES WERE FULLY EDUCATED by and about INLP. Administration must be educated as well, and they must participate in INLP or INLP will not even exist in their hospital.

Preventing medication errors is very cost-effective even with the added time by nurses in performing their jobs. How much is human life in $$$? How much do hospitals in the U.S. pay the families of patients who died or were harmed by medication errors committed by nurses? How much is the cost of defending the hospitals from lawsuits because of medication errors committed by nurses? How many nurses have lost their licenses and/or jobs due to medication errors committed by them? And how do you measure the grief felt by family members because nurses committed medication errors that led to the deaths of their loved ones? I could go on and on.

Do you know that an estimated one million medication errors are committed in U.S. hospitals every year, and about 100,000 U.S.patients die from preventable hospital deaths every year? Imagine if 100,000 airplane passengers die from airplane crashes every year in the U.S., there would be an outcry from the public and surely from the U.S. Congress to make vast changes air travel to make it a lot safer. Yet, where is the public outcry from avoidable hospital deaths?

To change this, nurse leaders made it a mission to make hospitals a lot safer. The "L" in INLP is "Leadership". All nurses are "leaders" because we are professionals. Leaders have vision. Leaders have missions. Leaders have goals. As leaders, let's make it a mission and goal to make hospitals much safer for all.

INLP will not succeed without the dedication and patient efforts of INLP nurses who EDUCATE fellow nurses about INLP. And once nurses have been educated and positive changes have been adopted, vigilance is mandatory or INLP will die.

Elwyn RN

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There will be interruptions, but they shouldn't be constant, like running after the same alarm for the 5th time in a row...

Yah I agree. Validate the OBVIOUS. Good grief.

Hoo boy I could see THAT happening in our hospital...

The idea sounds worthy, but as a floor nurse I get to know my patients very well as I work with them throughout their admission. I know what drugs they are on, and sometimes catch something that the patient is saying or symptom that is new to the patient and will call the MD about it for notification to the MD and to see if he/she still wants a particular medication given. I am having serious questions that a "med pass nurse" will have that insight only because they won't know the patients as well as the floor nurse who is with the patient from admission to discharge. Am I out of line on this or does anyone else have this queasy feeling?

I made an error yesterday. I'm trying to bang out meds for 30 people in time to turn over the cart at shift change, I have the phone ringing with call-outs, a patient on the floor, and one who died. I pulled the narcs from the lock box and popped a stronger Vicodin than the one the lady was supposed to get. In the midst of it we then spend 20 minutes reconciling the frackin' narc count because God forbid that someone take a 0.25 mg Xanax, which get counted along with the injectable morphine.

Maybe, just maybe, some of the problems are nurse overload and ridiculous controlled substances laws.