Dealing with CNA's

[miss_c]

I am a new Grad on a Tele floor, last night I overheard a Nursing Assistant telling my patient not to eat the broccoli in his salad since he is on Coumadin. She went on and on about how she "thought" it would interact with his Coumadin, but she wasn't sure and he should "look it up when he got home". I was a little angry about her conversation with this patient, since I felt she was way out of her scope of practice, but I did not say anything to her. I worked at this facility as a Nursing Assistant while in school and even a preceptor to this particular Assistant when she started. Since this is only my second week on the shift I will be working, I did not say anything, but now I feel that I should have spoken to her. I did speak to my Preceptor about the incident; she asked "How do you want to handle it". My feelings last night were to not to rock the boat in my first weeks, but I think now that I was wrong and should have spoken to the Assistant. I am hoping for any and all advice on how to handle this type of situation the next time? Thanks for your advise! :redbeathe

p.s. This patient was just put on Coumadin and later that evening I did do patient education with regards to food and drug interactions with Coumadin.

[Crash_Cart]

Scope of educational background is not the issue. Scope of practice is the issue.

Don't worry, there will be plenty of time to function as a licensed nurse, teaching and counciling patients about thier medication issues after you write and pass the NCLEX exam like they did.

[JDZ344]

(sorry. Posted in wrong thread)

[kids]

I'd take a non-threatening, non-aggressive but firm approach (while taking the opportunity to tell the PCT they were wrong in their information in a round about way).

"I happened to overhear you talking to Mr_______ about his diet and Coumadin. I'd really appreciate it if you would leave patient education to the nurses, sometimes doctors choose to deviate from the standard teaching or it's not as simple as not eating certain foods. Getting conflicting information can really make it confusing for the patients."

[sasha2lady]

Hmm....I dont think its kosher for any aide to be giving out that kind of medical advice..it should have been done by the nurse/ dietician, md...whoever...someone who is LICENSED to educate a patient on some level...now I can totally see why an aide would inform a pt of why they had to be repositioned or something like that...but only to a very limited point. I would not expect the aide to go into any type of detail...but...it does happen everywhere. And it most likely wasnt going to kill him to have a lil broccoli being on coumadin....I would see a concern for that if he was eating foods high in vitamin k by the pound all day and night....but once in a while in good proportion is ok. FYI...My boss RN, BSN,MSN DON....did NOT know that high amounts of vitamin k rich foods COULD interfere with coumadin.....key point though...is high amounts of vit k rich foods.

[Nurse2B80]

I'm not a nurse but I think it depends. As a tech you do get info on patient diets and what they are and are not suppose to eat. Like no citrus, no caff, no free water, no dairy, etc. So if as a tech you get that info in report then I don't think its out of line to pass on info. I usually ask if their nnurse informed that they should not be having so and so. Now if you as a tech are making your own patient assessments then you are definately not within your scope because you are not qualified. Leave that and other critical thinking to the RN. Now back to the Lakers :)

[foreverLaur]

Now back to the Lakers :)

Rooting for the Celtics over here - I'm a Cavs fan :)

[Nurse2B80]

Rooting for the Celtics over here - I'm a Cavs fan :)

LOL well i'm a fish out of water. No one likes the lakers where i am.

[Katie5]

Rooting for the Celtics over here - I'm a Cavs fan :)

LAKERS RULE!!!!