Narcotics at the bedside in t he PACU

We don not waste our narcs every time we give a dose in the PACU. HOWEVER, policy reads that narcotics should never be left unattended. We are to tag the narcotics with the pt's name and keep them in front of us at all times (we are permitted to place them in our pockets). To my knowledge this has never been a problem with JAHCO. Hope this helps.

How could you realistically waste narcotics after each dose? We keep them at the bedside and waste after the patient has moved on. We have lock boxes at each bedside that we're supposed to lock them in when we're not using them - but no one ever uses them - again not very realistic. I keep an eye on them, but sometimes I have to leave the bedside to grab something else. Sometimes I'll put them in my pocket, but we were told JACHO doesn't approve of that either. We've never had a problem.

We've just had a memo from pharmacy which essentially says that you don't give anything from a syringe that you haven't drawn up yourself (even though we always check each others narcotic draws and the syringes are labeled,double signed)...this would mean that if you go to break (15-45 minutes) you discard your syringe,they discard theirs on your return, and you draw up a new syringe....does anyone do this? No one. It's ludicrous.

This is an example of a make-work project for people who sit behind desks all day...

is unavoidable.

I wish there was a realistic system; I've been doing this for a long time--haven't figured it out yet.