Feeding patients

Specialties Urology

Published

Thanks to everyone's suggestions on patient schedules - I finally have one that I hope is better than our current schedule, although it's not ideal because of course I had some who "balked" at moving an inch or a minute. Anyway, I'd like to "sweeten the pot" on the first day of change, and wondered if any of you had some recipes or ideas on how to feed 16 patients at a time. Right now I'm thinking muffins but that sounds kind of ho hum. Thanks again in advance!

Specializes in Dialysis (acute & chronic).
As long as they are not hypotensive I leave the tube feedings on.

:sofahider

I would never turn a hospitalized patients tube feeding off during dialysis unless I needed to lay their bed flat d/t an access functioning issue.

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Specializes in jack of all trades.

You dont find tube feedings in the chronic setting. How did tube feeding come up? I believe the jest of the post is if allowing pts to eat/drink during thier dialysis treatment and how we end up being more thier servants and maids on occasion rather than thier nurses lol.

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Specializes in Dialysis (acute & chronic).

It was briefly mentioned by a poster and I replied to it.

I have patients in the chronic unit with tube feeds running. They come from the nursing homes.

I put my foot down to no portable vents or trachs. Our acuity level is high enough already!

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Specializes in Dialysis.

really Tish? good Lord, they come with tube feed running? How does that work, is there a portable unit for that? Honestly, my FA would never accept a tuber.

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Specializes in Dialysis (acute & chronic).

They come via stretcher with Kangaroo pumps running off of battery and we just put the pump on top of our machines and plug them into electric to charge the battery for the return trip.

Some of these people are so frail, they need everything they can get. I would personally prefer to give them IDPN with their treatments, but I fear that the IDPN would not be delivered to the clinic in time for their treatment.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab, Burn, dialys.

I love your response, GeauxNursing! We have a guy who brings his roll up camping mattress to put in the chair, luck has it his loyal wife has to carry it in and out and roll it up. Next, they will bring their whole bedrooms and fridges. lol, thanks for the laugh.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Don't laugh - have you seen rolling coolers??? Yep, in one of the HDUs where I work, that is what the pts bring in!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab, Burn, dialys.

Yep, the rolling coolers are great. They would fill them with ice from our ice machine until the machine "broke". No ice machine for 6 months and they are complaining, "when will we get our ice machine back?". They think we are a full service restaurant, "will you go to the waiting room and get me a cup of coffee?" .... "with cream?"

Hope the ice machine never comes back. They tell the pts it will and tell us it never will. Keep them coming with rolling coolers!!!! Love your description!!!:bugeyes::lol2:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

In one of the HDUs where I go, (32 chair, 120 pts) they have no ice machine, no coffee, nothing. In fact the teensy weensy TV (12 inch) in the waiting room keeps getting stolen.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

we just have a water fountain in the lobby. Just yesterday I had a pt say to another "the clinic down the street, they have a coffee machine, a soda machine, and a snack machine in their lobby! They just don't want us to have anything over here." I said, "Well we don't want you guys to be drinking sodas and eating cheetos and fritos all the time." (we already have a hard enough time controlling phosphorus with these ppl.) "Well yea but the administrator over there must understand that the salt in the fritos helps with blood pressure, ya know. She must care about the pts not falling out in her lobby!" Oooh, that made me so mad. I'm thinking, you don't need any help with your BP OR your phosphorus! You don't take your binders, EVER, and you gain 5+ kilos b/t every tx, so naturally your BP goes in the crapper when we try to pull it all every time. That's why you want fritos in the lobby? Frankly, I just get so tired of hearing certain pts bad mouth the company and the boss and the clinic for not, basically, waiting on them hand and foot and supplying their every desire!

I know I'm a nurse and I am supposed to always try to educate and be sincere and CARE and stuff, but I find that chronic HD pts can be such VICTIMS! Everyone is just out to screw them.

Is it not bad enough that we have one tiny little lady that orders pizza to the clinic for herself? Sweet talks another pts son into running out to Whataburger for her, then brings it ONTO the floor for her to eat while she is on the machine? Then, "Susie, can you bring me the butterfinger that's in my bag? It's not there? Okay, just bring me the SNickers bar then." Agh! That's why your p04 is 10!!

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Our Medical Director wants to get a popcorn machine so the pts can have popcorn while watching the Netflix movies he brought in. He also wants us to give them sno-cones! We give them protein popsicles too. What next? Like I don't have enough to do than to add fetch and carrying food to my list of chores.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Wow popcorn and sno cones, popsicles??

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