I'm currently working in a hospital as a patient sitter (let my license lapse in this state) and I've recently observed some real problems and I'm not sure if I should say something or just keep my mouth shut because of my current "lowly" position.
What I saw:
1. Phlebotomist recently came in and drew blood on a patient WITHOUT using gloves - and didn't wash/clean hands before leaving the room. This was a new admit from the ER so diagnosis was not yet updated and just before the Phlebotomist came in the patient told the nurse he had Hep C. I would have said Oh can I get you some gloves but didn't realize what he was doing until after the fact as he was drawing on the other side of the patient from where I was sitting. The policy for Phlebs at our hospital is gloves ALWAYS.
2. Time and again I'm seeing Techs not using proper protection or cleaning equipment before leaving the room, BP cuffs not cleaned, even though there are isolation signs posted at the door, handling patients without gloves/gowns as indicated by isolation signs at door, not washing/cleaning hands. Just plain **** poor or non-existant technique.
As a sitter I'm not supposed to "touch a patient" only observe and the requirements for our job are a high school diploma - no medical knowledge/background necessary. I've been at this job for 5 months now and it's the first one I could get after being unemployed for 3 1/2 years so I'm very very hesitant to say anything to anyone. We work all over the hospital so we don't make a lot of contact with the "locals" - we show up and sit in the room. I have better rapor with the hospital shift supers who we get our assignments from. I don't want to become a "tattle tail" but yeesh, some of the stuff I see is down right scary. Sooooooo do I just keep my yap shut, I'm so far down the food chain, often I'm ignored when staff comes and goes and I soooo need this job and have hopes of getting a full time job at the hospital in some capacity - like unit secretary but my concern is if I rat someone out now (and they'd know it was me) my chances of getting full time work would go down the drain.
this may have no relevence to this post............ many times i walk out of the patients room and go wash my hands down the hall, we only have sinks in the hall, i hate the sanitizers in the pt's room and do not even think they are effective.
The gloves are definitely to protect the provider and a phlebotomist drawing blood without gloves is a blood-borne pathogen waiting to happen to himself, although I often wear gloves when starting IVF just as an added precaution to the recipient. Hand washing certainly protects the patient.
The problem here in terms of reporting is that she's in a rural facility. I will guarantee that everyone working there is related to one another, has been there for a thousand years, and will be mouldering in the grave and still drawing blood while the complainant has lost her home.
I remember shadowing a nurse in my informatics life to do a flow chart of med administration. WHILE BEING OBSERVED she didn't bother to wash her hands before preparing meds and touching the pills with her hands. Rural. Nepotistic.
There isn't much black and white when trying to keep your job.
write a letter to the unit manager and say you were visiting a patient when you saw people not cleaning bp cuffs going out of an isolation room but be sure to add a few other complaints in there........? that might bring the issue to the manager's attention and they will think a visitor wrote it.
Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.
PsychNurse, the best solution is vashtee's - hand him/her a pair of gloves with a "I think you forgot these."
:)
I have just found that if you stick your head up you get whacked, like whack-a-mole. The reporter is always identified and ultimately let go. Ask me how I know this.
I have reported. Relative of the DON. Guess the outcome! And I questioned the practice of pulling floor stock only under patients' names so they get billed. Oops.
Specializes in ED, Telemetry,Hospice, ICU, Supervisor.
I have reported. Relative of the DON. Guess the outcome! And I questioned the practice of pulling floor stock only under patients' names so they get billed. Oops.
and didn't wash/clean hands before leaving the room. This was a new admit from the ER so diagnosis was not yet updated and just before the Phlebotomist came in the patient told the nurse he had Hep C. I would have said Oh can I get you some gloves but didn't realize what he was doing until after the fact as he was drawing on the other side of the patient from where I was sitting. The policy for Phlebs at our hospital is gloves ALWAYS.
xtxrn, ASN, RN
4,267 Posts
Designed to protect the HCP....
Handwashing is infection control for the patient.