Anyone had this problem?

[sunnycalifRN]

Lately, we've been having a problem with our CNA's getting a little "too helpful". One CNA, who was doing CO for a confused patient, kept silencing the IV pump when the alarm went off. I'd be with my other patient, hear the alarm, and by the time I got there, she had silenced it!! She said, "It bothers the patient". I asked her not to touch the IV pumps . . . and I got the reply "I'm a nurse from blah-blah country, I know what I'm doing". I reiterated, that it was not her job to manage the IV pump and please do not touch it. Harumph!! was her reply.

Anyone else running into this?

[mom4josh]

Yes! We had an aide (now a nurse tech) who kept resetting an IV pump on one of my patients. What drove me over the edge was that this particular patient was getting Rituxan, a med where severe reactions are possible, especially the first time. I would set the pump for 15 cc just so that I could check the VS, then increase the rate if the patient was okay. When I realized what she was doing, it was way past the first set of VS. Luckily, the patient was okay and didn't have any reaction, but after that I told her to just stay the #%($ away from my pumps!

P.S. She's just as cocky now that she's almost a nurse, and still clueless. Last time I followed her there were numerous errors I had to correct after she left. Scary!

[caliotter3]

Turning pump alarms off has always been par for the course for CNAs in every facility where I worked. They would continue the practice after being told not to do it.

[MJB2010]

I run into the opposite, I am a NA and a Student Nurse and some of the nurses have asked me to go reset pumps, and gotten mad at me for saying I didn't feel comfortable. It just so happens that the one who always asks us to do these things is one of the Nurses that makes frequent mistakes and then blames everyone else, No Thank You!

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

When I was a CNA, I would silence the pump and then let the nurse know. Sometimes those pumps are beeping for 45 minutes before the nurse could get in there.

[mamamerlee, LPN]

I think it would be okay to silence the alarm just once and notify the nurse immediately. When my son was in the hospital recently. his pump alarmed for over 20 min before it was attended to - late in the evening, when he was trying to sleep. Very annoying. I wish there was a 'remote' alarm, at the nurses's station, instead of next to the patient's ear.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

yep - nurses turning off pumps on patients that are not theirs and not telling the primary nurse. Disconnecting pumps from the patient all together. Coming back from Xray (this is my favorite) with an IV out, pump silenced.... ah lovely. No respect, I tell you, no respect.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

When I was a CNA, I would silence the pump and then let the nurse know. Sometimes those pumps are beeping for 45 minutes before the nurse could get in there.

which is unacceptable and just plain rude! I hate it when I'M busy, as well all are, but to hear a pump beep and beep (and not my patient), I'll just go in and take care of it and then head to the nurse to say - I know you heard the pump, because I'm 50 feet away and I heard it, but I fixed it for you, you're welcome. =) To just ignore it is obnoxious, not to mention wrong.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

Now that I'm a nurse I attend to my pumps right away just because I know how annoyed most patients become with the beeping. I also wish there was an alarm at the nurses' station instead of on the pump blaring for what seems like forever to the pt.

[tokidoki7, ASN, RN]

When I was a CNA, I would silence the pump and then let the nurse know. Sometimes those pumps are beeping for 45 minutes before the nurse could get in there.

I do the same thing. My facility uses Alaris pumps and there's a orange 'silence' button that silences the machine for at least 2 minutes. I always make sure I tell the nurse because those beeping sounds really agitate the patients, especially when they're already in pain.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

We always silenced the pumps when I was a CNA. Another CNA showed me how to do it. I didn't know it was against the rules until I became a nurse. By then, the alarm silencing behavior was so entrenched in the CNA culture on my unit, that it would have required a Herculean effort to try and change it, and there were much, much bigger fish to fry when it came to CNA job performance. As long as the CNAs were certain that the nurse was aware of the pump alarming (i.e. the nurse had come into the room to check it out, or the CNA had reported the alarm to the nurse), then it was one of those little things that was overlooked.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

I once walked into the room of a mastectomy patient to find a fairly new CNA giving discharge/drain instructions to the patient. I stood for a little while and listened (my presence didn't faze the CNA in the slightest) and the instructions weren't even anything that the surgeon or our facility would endorse.

I called the CNA out of the room and asked how it was that she came to be giving discharge instructions, etc., and she replied that the patient asked her a question and she just answered what nurses from her previous position would have replied. I thought I would blow a gasket.