Alcohol prep pads

[aegirl]

I keep seeing people say you should keep alcohol prep pads with you at clinicals. Do you use the sterile or non-sterile ones? I'd like to use them to clean my stethoscope off

[JVanRN]

I work as a med tech in an assisted-living facility, and corporate office came and removed the prep pads, gauze and some other stuff from the med room during their audit recently. We're under a whole bunch of new regulations. I was told we weren't even supposed to have band-aids in the house, but I still see them in the med room and the first aid kits, and packets of topical ointment (even though we're not allowed to put anything on a wound before putting a band-aid on--that's considered medical treatment).

We had a resident fall the other night and her only injury was a skin tear. All we could do was clean it with soap and water--we had to leave the wound open for the nurse to bandage when she came the next day. Umm, okay so as a med tech I'm allowed to hand someone a narcotic pill but I can't cover a skin tear?

And, how is the nurse supposed to dress wounds if we're not even allowed to keep the supplies to do so in the building?? About a week ago one of our residents split her head open. The nurse and I could not find any gauze, so we had to stop the bleeding with a washcloth, and wait for the medics to arrive.

That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of....there are lots of people that keep those basic supplies in their house for things just as you described and they are not medical type facilities...that's just being prepared...i wonder what the logic is for that

[boulergirl, CNA]

This is one reason why I'm thinking of quitting my job. The new regs and everything are getting ridiculous. Now the nurse tells us we can't put pills in souffle cups anymore, either. The resident has to read the label or the bottle, understand what they're taking and give themselves the med while we watch. Well, why are we supervising their meds if they are capable of doing it themselves?? I don't know...

I agree about the risk of infection with a skin tear. Good grief. The poor woman showed up at breakfast the next morning with a band-aid she put on herself. What's the point of forcing all employees to go through first aid training if we can't even use it??? This just kills me.