Code Blue Drills

We don't have drills. We did have a code blue last summer. Everything went fine.

Please note this was posted in the LTC forum..we are in a non-critical care area! We really don't get much practice with this so a drill is a great idea.

My bad. Sorry. I was looking under "What's New" and didn't notice. Carry on

We always have them at annoying times like the beginning of our shift because the nurse educator doesn't want to stay later than they have to. Then you get attitude for not showing up because your patient had new onset afib with RVR with doctor at the bedside demanding you to push this and that now.

Please don't do that. I think code drills are great for non-critical care or ED settings but man when they do it to us, it's such a waste of time because you can tell all the nurses are just going through it half-heartedly while thinking about all the things they need to do for their real patients.

Edit:

Oh and I know a real code would be just as inconvenient but that's the thing, it's a real code so of course we would drop everything to attend within the realm of safety. All ranting aside, I think there needs to be a better way to time it. I know there needs to be an element of surprise to see how people react but at the same time, nurses in all specialties are busy as all hell and taking time away from real patients is annoying.

We had a fire drill once at 4:30pm. During the middle of the medpass and getting people ready for dinner, while admissions coming in the door. NOT THE RIGHT TIME.

We had a fire drill once at 4:30pm. During the middle of the medpass and getting people ready for dinner, while admissions coming in the door. NOT THE RIGHT TIME.

You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.

You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.

Yes but the point is that a drill is within the realm of control and it would be nice if it were scheduled for maximum compliance and least disruption to plan of care.

You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.

Remove residents, sound alarm, close all doors, extinguish/evacuate.

Fiveofpeep is correct, these practice drills cannot interrupt the care process. Staff will not be focused or get anything out of the practice drill if they have 1,000 different things going on.

My old facility never had code blue drills until I begged for one; the nurse educator was surprised that we would need a drill; she said that it was a core skill and of course we would know what to do...um, no. Sure, we are CPR certified, but there is a bunch of other stuff like knowing the crash cart, paperwork, delegation, etc that really should be reviewed a few times a year, just so that we're prepared when it happens! We had a code one weekend, and I was the only person in the joint who had ever done CPR, so it was a very stressful situation that could have been avoided had we drilled. (I'm the fool who hangs on to every word that the fire company says, 'cause I am in dread of having to evacuate the facility.) For both fire and code drills, I'd rather have my current work process interrupted so that I'm prepared when the big one happens.

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Emergency preparedness is really important for the safety of all. All those kinds of drills are being conducted in our facility.

Regarding the code blue drill, the golden rule there is that...the rare it happened, the more drills must be done.