I have found that more and more nurses are carrying and using their own portable Pulse Ox. I personally dont' like to use them we all know our patient's pulse ox's will be nothing near normal for the most part... family members often tend to focus on numbers I have found when following nurses who use these.
DO you feel they are appropriate? Most hospice agencies do not provide these items. I feel it's an expense that I don't wish to put out there,but like I said more and more of my colleagues are using these.
this has become an issue here. I had a patient who's husband purchased a pulse ox for his dying wife. As she lay clearly dying, mottled, unresponsive, gurgling, he and his daughter focused instead on the pulse ox which read, '91%.' they thought she would come out of her dying state because of that number.
Now, here in Orange County, CA, if we use these, we must also specify on the care plan exactly what we will do, based on the reading. I find they are bad news all around, although I do think they would be helpful for those respiratory patients needing re-certification. But what if the level reads high? as they often do, would they then not quality?
Getting lots of pushback from nurses, who really want to do this. Also, what do you all do to sanitize these? After all, they are on someone's finger. Or do you have one per patient?
Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
I work in-patient hospice so my experience may be different, but we do use a pulse ox on a regular basis. Either for titrating pt's off O2 or as a means of checking stability of vital signs. I don't find families to be fixated on the 02 number - most fixate more on BP. We do a lot of family education though, and make it clear that we are using them to look for trends and changes, and that abnormal readings are normal for hospice and we rarely intervene. We are also fine with not taking any or all vitals at patient or family request.
scjudyb
6 Posts
this has become an issue here. I had a patient who's husband purchased a pulse ox for his dying wife. As she lay clearly dying, mottled, unresponsive, gurgling, he and his daughter focused instead on the pulse ox which read, '91%.' they thought she would come out of her dying state because of that number.
Now, here in Orange County, CA, if we use these, we must also specify on the care plan exactly what we will do, based on the reading. I find they are bad news all around, although I do think they would be helpful for those respiratory patients needing re-certification. But what if the level reads high? as they often do, would they then not quality?
Getting lots of pushback from nurses, who really want to do this. Also, what do you all do to sanitize these? After all, they are on someone's finger. Or do you have one per patient?