restorative nursing

How do you keep track of alarms and keep them from being broken? I have a list on the units, and when the shifts do walking rounds TOGETHER at the beginning of their shift, they check the alarms for their assigned patients. A check on the list is OK. For alarms that are broken, we put on the 24* report sheet, batteries are always available, all Nursing Supv.'s have access to extra bed/chair pads and alarm boxes. (this is the ideal) if a replacement cannot be obtained, we will increase monitoring for the night/day for one to be obtained. If that still isnt possible(weekend) we exchange the monitor with someone who has it, but may not actually need it(boxes only)

What types of programs are you doing? [size="3"]8 different modalities are employed at our facility. We do not do bladder re-training unless there is a discharge plan. How do you explain keigles to a 80 y.o man with dementia? You cant. We do a schedule after a 3 day voiding record at 2 hour intervals.[/SIZE]

Do you have group programs , one on one. How do you do it? Group programs work best on the dementia unit. Some CNA's will do it if there is more than one on their assignment(remember I am talking about 36 CNA's) and we do hospice care on the same unit as rehab care. Most of the programs therefore are 1:1 as the CNA's feel ownership of the progress for residents, its THEIR resident.

Do you do the care plans and MDs? I do the initial CCP, and then the Unit Nurse takes over for all adjustments(plan changes not modality changes)

Do you chart on all the residnets or just ones in restorative? The unit nurse or Nurse manager will cnart on the resident if they are on maintenence, with the quarterly MDS, because there is no standard other then "periodically". If the resident is on restorative with rehab Low category for Med A, I chart weekly, because the RL category dosent last forever.

Yes we must keep this thread going and keep in touch. I whole heartedly agree!

my goal is to have the best programs and keep the staff positive and have some fun with both residents and staff. I am keeping staff positive with e-mails to the units weekly on progress(the are printed and posted by the Unit nurse), graduation, people who went the extra mile, CNA's and administrative staffers who come up with ideas and information, when they put articles in my mailbox or direct me to a website. I also post ONE information point in each e-mail..which gives a topic of conversation that weekend and the following week.

Too many times the resident say how bored they are. I want to keep them at their highest functioning possible. For boredom, we incorporate the TR dept, and the excercize classes, as well as arts & crafts for fine motor skills.
Thanks for any input you have