buying a pulse ox of my own?

Nurses Uniform/Gear

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I am completing my school preceptorship on the same floor where I currently work as an aide and will be working as a nurse. We are a telemetry step-down unit. The floor has the same problem as apparantly every other floor in the hospital - there is never a pulse ox around when you need it. I did clinicals on one floor where they said they hadn't had a pulse ox for over a week because it had just gone MIA so when they needed it they called respiratory to come check it. My floor has never been that bad, you just spend forever trying to track down who has it or what patient room it was left in. Everybody tries to be the first one to get it in the morning so they can get assessments done. My Patient Care Coordinator has her own finger one and I love it! She lets people borrow it occassionally and everybody knows that it MUST end up back in her pocket. I am considering buying my own with the PELL grant check I will get at the end of the month. I am through with school and have this check and 1 more that don't need to go to tuition but I would like to put them towards my nursing career. I found some good prices on eBay for new ones.

I'm just wondering if anybody else has their own pulse ox and what experiences have been like. I don't want to have everyone borrowing it all the time so I would probably just get it and not tell anyone (of course someone would eventually see me using it!)

Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
oh and also... my main priority is patient care, not "fighting a battle worth fighting or not fighting". If it makes my life easier and patients care more timely and efficient, then why not. Ive had incidents of walking into a pt's room, upon a quick visual assessment it was obvious that pt was in resp failure. Within 10 seconds I knew the sat and was able to respond accordingly, whereas if I had to go look for a pulseox or call respiratory therapy to come check sat, the outcome may have been different. And yes, every second counts. But thats my opinion, like everyone else who has their own opinion also. If you dont want to buy one, then dont. If you do, then do it and no one should speak ill for your doing so. To each their own. But I do think that it should be checked and results compared to RT's equipment to ensure reliability.

Don't assume that a nurse who believes she should not be responsible for buying a pulse ox, does not make pt care her priority. This is the self-sacrificial attitude that is holding our profession back and allowing these facilities to continue this practice.

If you walked into a pt's room and it was 'obvious that a pt was in respiratory failure' (your words, not mine) and you had to have a pulse ox reading before you reacted...pt care is not your priority and you are relying too heavily on fallable equipment anyway....but that's an entirely different thread.

No one is disputing that nurses who DO want to buy a pulse ox are doing them for noble reasons. However, their view of the situation is very short sighted. They want an immediate solution, and are less concerned with the long term problems that it may cause, not only at their facility but possibly others. They are not addressing the bigger problem at hand, nurses being taken advantage of by the larger corporations who are essentially responsible for providing this equipment. IMO, that is definitely a battle worth fighting.

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Specializes in Lie detection.
oh and also... my main priority is patient care, not "fighting a battle worth fighting or not fighting". if it makes my life easier and patients care more timely and efficient, then why not. ive had incidents of walking into a pt's room, upon a quick visual assessment it was obvious that pt was in resp failure. within 10 seconds i knew the sat and was able to respond accordingly, whereas if i had to go look for a pulseox or call respiratory therapy to come check sat, the outcome may have been different. and yes, every second counts. but thats my opinion, like everyone else who has their own opinion also. if you dont want to buy one, then dont. if you do, then do it and no one should speak ill for your doing so. to each their own. but i do think that it should be checked and results compared to rt's equipment to ensure reliability.

great priorities but what about the days/times you are not working? who's responsibility is it to make sure that pt. in distress has a pulse ox. available? it is the hospital. fighting the battle now will help assure there is is equipment there all the time for all staff to use. the nm needs to be accountable and do her job. she is getting off easy and people are letting her. i wouldn't. that would be my choice. i have never yet in 10 years had a detrimental pt. outcome due to lack of equipment. the hospital/facility has to provide.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
great priorities but what about the days/times you are not working? who's responsibility is it to make sure that pt. in distress has a pulse ox. available?

excellent point!!!!

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.
great priorities but what about the days/times you are not working? who's responsibility is it to make sure that pt. in distress has a pulse ox.?

that's what i was thinking! does the patient deserve lesser care if his nurse is not financially able to provide his/her own equipment? it's one thing to have your special pen or a nifty pair of scissors; a patient's life should not be up to luck of the draw of having a nurse who has the means to have their own special equipment (which the unit should be providing anyway).

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Specializes in Level III cardiac/telemetry.

Wow, I had no idea that this would be so controversial. Every nurse on my floor has said they wish they could buy their own pulse ox. I do want to clarify something - my floor does have a pulse ox machine, it is just often MIA in a patient's room or in the drawer of someone elses med cart or someone else is using it for assessments. The floors I was on that haven't had one were ones I did clinicals on. The reason I would buy one is so that I could spend more time doing patient care and less time traching things down.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.
Don't assume that a nurse who believes she should not be responsible for buying a pulse ox, does not make pt care her priority. This is the self-sacrificial attitude that is holding our profession back and allowing these facilities to continue this practice.

If you walked into a pt's room and it was 'obvious that a pt was in respiratory failure' (your words, not mine) and you had to have a pulse ox reading before you reacted...pt care is not your priority and you are relying too heavily on fallable equipment anyway....but that's an entirely different thread.

No one is disputing that nurses who DO want to buy a pulse ox are doing them for noble reasons. However, their view of the situation is very short sighted. They want an immediate solution, and are less concerned with the long term problems that it may cause, not only at their facility but possibly others. They are not addressing the bigger problem at hand, nurses being taken advantage of by the larger corporations who are essentially responsible for providing this equipment. IMO, that is definitely a battle worth fighting.

I refuse to argue. Im not on this site to do that. THAT is what is holding nurses back, the inability to be a team and work together or agree to disagree. My point was that it came in handy to have it with me. I CHOOSE to have one because it helps me to provide better patient care. No I do NOT rely too heavily on whatever you said. Honestly I just dont care what you said. The OP just asked a question and it has turned into a bashing.

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Why does it have to be called bashing just because other people have expressed a different perspective from the OP in regard to buying their own pulse ox? I thought the purpose of having a forum was to discuss issues related to nursing?

At the end of the day opinions are nothing more than food for thought.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Hmmm. I've been following this thread and I didn't see it as a bashing.

Actually, there have been some very, very valid points brought up. Liabililty being one: lack of calibration and documentation and treatment based on that equipment. Also, the other staff not having access to the pulse ox, because instead of going through proper channels to get the necessary equipment, some staff are bringing in their own.

In the end, it's the pts who fail or at risk for nurses bringing in their own mechanical equipment.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
I refuse to argue. Im not on this site to do that. THAT is what is holding nurses back, the inability to be a team and work together or agree to disagree. My point was that it came in handy to have it with me. I CHOOSE to have one because it helps me to provide better patient care. No I do NOT rely too heavily on whatever you said. Honestly I just dont care what you said. The OP just asked a question and it has turned into a bashing.

I am not bashing you or arguing with you for the simple sake of arguing. I am simply debating the issue, which I have the right to do. Sorry you took it personally.

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To LanaBanana, the OP, I understood your original question and have put my two cents in....my floor DOES have this equipment "available", like yours, and I have made the same considerations as you regarding MY OWN CONVENIENCE and time-saving. Yes, it is the hospital's responsibility to have the equipment available but they are obviously not required to have so many available as to make it the most convenient for their staff. So some will choose to get one and MAKE it convenient, and I refuse to argue about whether I should or should not "fight" for more of them. It's a ridiculous arguement because we're not talking about the difference between NO pulse oxes and HAVING pulse oxes. We're talking about the convenience of the staff in having one available immediately, rather than spending time searching for equipment to make our jobs easier.

If people want to fight their hospitals to get three pulse oxes per floor instead of two, or five instead of three, more power to them. That's their decision.

I have no interest in thumping a drum over this, and I don't care for the negative references toward those of us who feel this way (short-sightedness? self-sacrificial attitude? not making pt care a priority?).

I am not liking the tone of this thread any longer as it does not feel that the OP's question is being debated, but rather the characters of those nurses who do not wish to take up some sort of battle cry. Time for me to bow out.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.
To LanaBanana, the OP, I understood your original question and have put my two cents in....my floor DOES have this equipment "available", like yours, and I have made the same considerations as you regarding MY OWN CONVENIENCE and time-saving. Yes, it is the hospital's responsibility to have the equipment available but they are obviously not required to have so many available as to make it the most convenient for their staff. So some will choose to get one and MAKE it convenient, and I refuse to argue about whether I should or should not "fight" for more of them. It's a ridiculous arguement because we're not talking about the difference between NO pulse oxes and HAVING pulse oxes. We're talking about the convenience of the staff in having one available immediately, rather than spending time searching for equipment to make our jobs easier.

If people want to fight their hospitals to get three pulse oxes per floor instead of two, or five instead of three, more power to them. That's their decision.

I have no interest in thumping a drum over this, and I don't care for the negative references toward those of us who feel this way (short-sightedness? self-sacrificial attitude? not making pt care a priority?).

I am not liking the tone of this thread any longer as it does not feel that the OP's question is being debated, but rather the characters of those nurses who do not wish to take up some sort of battle cry. Time for me to bow out.

Well said. I agree with you totally.

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great priorities but what about the days/times you are not working? who's responsibility is it to make sure that pt. in distress has a pulse ox. available? it is the hospital. fighting the battle now will help assure there is is equipment there all the time for all staff to use. the nm needs to be accountable and do her job. she is getting off easy and people are letting her. i wouldn't. that would be my choice. i have never yet in 10 years had a detrimental pt. outcome due to lack of equipment. the hospital/facility has to provide.

hear hear!

i see budgets.

i would never buy anything for my hospital. not even a pen.

your nm is responsible. i would walk into her office everytime saying "there's no pulse ox today... again. any ideas?" plus incident reports!!! let qa in on this little problem!

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