Do people actually do safety checks?

[Florence NightinFAIL, BSN, RN]

I'm surprised at how many times I've seen charted safety checks but when I come into the room I find: the suction/oxygen units do not work or there are no nasal prongs/02 masks/ n!pple adapters/suction tubings etc.

It's so annoying.

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

In our department, routinely, every morning. We have a checklist that must be signed, just like for the emergency trolley. (but mea culpa, I very often forget to sign!)

Working out a simple list with blocks to tick off and initial is the best way to go. Once people get used to it, it becomes a habit; we fill up stocks and check equipment without even referring to the list.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

When I'm getting an admission, I check to make sure everything works before the pt hits the room. I've heard horror stories about a patient who choked to death because the suction in the room didn't work. I make sure all the equipment comes on, I don't have dead pumps, zero the bed, and something is coming out of the O2 tubing. We have a checklist for our crash carts, and we run system checks on our defibs at the beginning of each shift. Can you imagine charging to 300 only to find the thing error codes out? Yikes!

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Ah yes the lazy buggers that sign off the checklists and when you come on and find that you actually end up scramming for supplies to outfit the crash cart it can be so annoying. It's always the case that the carts were not used and the suction machines never moved but yet somehow Yonkers and sterile water are always missing. I think this one nurse was taking supplies home with her but I never made a deal about it (the place was a pit).

No, no, not an unusual occurrence at all in some places.

[mcknis]

I hate finding this especially when it is supposed to be done and is not. What I love the most is when someone charts an item as being missing, and it is listed that way for 4-5 days in a row without anyone else intervening! Being in the ER, it is very important that we have the equipment when we need it, but many people fail to grasp the idea that things have a place, and need to be returned to their home!

Believe it or not, when I worked med-surg, we never did daily checks (nor did the nursing assistants) to make sure that equipment was where it needed to be. Also, in the cabinets in each room, supplies were never stocked and something as simple (and vital) as a CPR pocket mask were never stocked in the patient rooms. This is almost frightening! Suction was not at the bedside, and oxygen cannula was not in the room. All of these supplies were at the end of a 100' hallway, or inside of the crash cart that someone had to run and grab. Not safe at all! At least in the ER, we do have supplies right at the bedside!

[chorkle]

This happens in other settings, too. One of my paramedic instructors related an incident with a new partner, who apparently said he had checked out the truck/box completely, and everything was ready to go.

On their shift, my instructor had a cardiac arrest (pt.), and there were NO cardiac meds on the truck.

Last time that ever happened.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

Years ago when we still had techs, they did all the checking and stocking. We haven't had techs no for about 5years and since then no one has really done them consistently. My manager fills out the forms for the whole month at the end of every month herself (roll eyes/shake head)

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

My techs usually do it; if they can't, I will. But it gets done every single shift I work.

[back2bRN]

The only thing I find worse than checking off the boxes without actually checking things( don't get me wrong that is abhorrent) is complaining about how poorly organized the crash cart/room is......those same complainers have never checked it. Really how do you expect to find anything if you don't familiarize yourself with YOUR equipment!Some people are simply breathtaking in their complaints!!!

[caliotter3]

I used to work for a home health agency that had these checks as the first item on their documentation. Some people never bothered to check the boxes and often one would find that what was checked did not coincide with reality. I once wrote a statement in the box and got chewed out royally because my statement contradicted what the other nurses had (not) done. I ended up being the wrong person, not those who filled the section out with false information. No good deed goes unpunished.

[coolpeach]

I do mine. I would hate to think that someone needed the crash cart, and something was missing or didn't work and they died. I couldn't live with that the rest of my life. It takes all of 5 -10 minutes of my time to save a life.

[sevensonnets]

Absolutely they get done every shift where I work. The first time you have a code and there's no ambu bag on the code cart and you have to send somebody scampering to another unit to get one it gets imprinted on your brain that if it's your day to do safety checks you'd better do them. It will always be your patient that codes.