Just wanna vent, we just hired a new nursing home administrator (who has no previous nursing home experience)started this new idea of nurses having to answer call bells in their assigned halls. I have 2 aides in 30-bed hall who answers these call bells. I don't mind helping out to boost someone in their bed or get their water pitcher and whatever crap but this is insanely ridiculous. Nurses have already too much in their hands. On top of that, she ordered that all of the charts to be out in plain sight, where our desk is so that we could attend to our residents and families' needs. We used to do our charting in the back room of the nurses station, now the only person that is allowed to be in there is the clinical director and the unit secretary. All the nurses should be out at the desk to answer phone calls, do your change-of-shift reports, do admissions, carry out orders and etc. I don't think this is a good idea. Being interrupted or distracted increases the risk of committing mistakes especially doctor's orders. The desk in the station has so much stuff around it like paperwork so we don't have enough space to use. And when its a weekday, all members of the healthcare team gather around the desk to do their notes leaving no space for nurses to sit down and chart. Plus we don't have a fax machine in our hall so we have to run down to the other wing to fax all our orders to pharmacy. Our cordless phones are not working so when you're down the hall, you have to come up to the station and answer these phone calls. I can't believe that there are people around there that doesn't take a quick second to answer these calls because they believe that its not part of their job description. I understand that we are understaffed but it doesn't mean that the nursing department have to carry all the burden. Its sad to see that there are nursing aides that left this facility because of always being understaffed. Sorry this was long..
Now my question is, is this allowed (the charts being in plain sight)? I don't feel comfortable giving report to an incoming nurse when other people could hear it. Their medical condition is confidential and non-employees doesn't have to hear about it. If this is a violation, can I get a link for this fact?
cebuana_nurse
380 Posts
I see. Hopefully things would get better soon. Thanks for all the positive opinions everyone!