Acceptable Behavior?

[jackometer]

Hello All,

I am a first semester nursing student in a 2 year program to become an RN. Yesterday during clinicals I was with my patient when his nurse came in to give him medications (our instructor passes meds with half of us one week and the other half the following week). The nurse, who is the charge nurse of the ward, was tossing the pills into the patient's mouth like he was playing basketball. One of the meds bounced out of the patient's mouth and onto his gown and the nurse picked it up and placed it back in his mouth. The patient was joking around with him saying that he shouldn't go for basketball. Should I say something or is this acceptable? By the way, the patient was on contact isolation.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I wouldn't say anything in a case like this. I wouldn't say this is acceptable behaviour, but it sounds like the patient and the nurse have a rapport going. But something like this, as a new student, I wouldn't go complaining.

There are many things I saw that made me want to cringe, everyone has their own way of doing things and I for sure wouldn't do things the way I saw done before. But unless it was a serious safety issue for the patient, I would just let it go.

[anonymousstudent]

When you're in a facility it's like walking on egg shells sometimes to get around what you'll see. Pass it up to your CI - that's their job.

I saw something once that was flat out ridiculous, major safety issue, and my CI still did nothing about it because the school didn't want to risk the placement over it.

[cgravier]

I would have yelled out, "Kobe!" before each try.

[CBsMommy]

Acceptable, no.

I wouldn't have said anything about it either. Also, isolation precautions is to protect you and the other patients you come into contact with. If a patient is on contact precautions, they already have MRSA or C-Diff or whatever.

I have seen a lot of stuff in clinical, the worst example....a nurse picking meds up off the floor, blowing them off with their mouth and putting them back into the med cup to give to the patient! We also talk about this in post conference with the CI and the other students and use these as examples of what NOT to do when we finally become nurses.

[jackometer]

Thanks everyone for your input, I appreciate all the comments :) I won't say anything to my CI but I will remember that is what a nurse should NOT do.

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

You'll find everyone will do things their own way...sometimes you have to do things like that to get through to a patient who may be uncomfortable. So what if it dropped onto his gown? once again, real world vs. school world. Don't report mess like that.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

It's not wise to correct the behavior of a charge nurse on your first clinical rotation. After all, you don't know the circumstances or the patient's history. Maybe that is the only way the patient will take his medications.

Is it good practice? Not really. Will it hurt the patient? Very unlikely, and it probably is helpful to build a relationship between patient and nurse. As the the pill falling on the ground, as long as nobody has been sneezing or coughing on his gown, there isn't really any risk of infection.

Ashley

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I would have yelled out, "Kobe!" before each try.

Sounds more like shaq.....cant hit the free throw.