Do things work/can you find the things you need?

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2016

We used to have a dedicated position staffed to take care of ED supplies - everything from laryngoscopes, batteries, thoracotomy trays, printer paper... you name it. If it was something you needed and it was either broke or outta stock, you let this person know and they'd order a replacement, get it fixed etc.

Then in the great scheme of things, management did away with the position.

Now one of the techs volunteers to do it.

Not blaming the techs who do it - they volunteered for extra responsibility with no extra pay!

But its just not the same...

However, I must say - part of the problem is the staff themselves!

Did your Mother ever admonish you as a kid - "If you take something from somewhere, put it back where it belongs after you're done!" Right?

Yeah, that's like 50% of the problem here! I can't tell you how many hours of my life I've wasted (at my old job) just looking for a freaking, working thermometer!!!

The other 50% is plain ol' inconsideration. Example - you reach into the folder to pick up a Heparin flowsheet for the patient with angina the doctor just ordered a Heparin drip on. It is the last sheet. What do you do?

If you're a team player (or just a considerate human being), you step over to the copy machine which is three feet away, make some 20 copies and put those back in the folder.

But if you're like some of the nurses I work with, you just take it and go about your way. And then later in the week, when you need another Heparin flowsheet for another patient and you look in the folder and find none; you proceed to whine and moan about how "nothing is ever stocked in here!"

I can't tell you the number of times I've seen equipment stashed at odd places which are broken/non-functional. How do I know they ain't working? Because they're stashed in places staff thinks 'If I leave it here someone else will take care of it because they know it is not supposed to be here.'

The expectation is that if staff finds any piece of equipment that is not functional, they're to take it out of service, put a maintenance tag on it describing the problem and put it in a certain room in the department. I've even sent out a blast email to ALL clinical staff that if folks have problems with malfunctioning equipment, to please put it in xyz room and shoot me an email and I'll take care of tagging it and reaching out to the appropriate department to get it fixed.

Nope. Still come into work and find equipment where it ain't supposed to be! Or it'll have a paper towel stuck onto it with tape saying "Not working" (NO ****! How about telling me WHAT/WHY isn't working??!!)

*sigh*

cheers,

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2016

Does it seem like everything's broken in your ER? Do your rooms have a full set of functioning monitor cables? What do you do about temp sensing Foley chords and art/cvp chords? How do you report thermometers with broken batteries? Are there regular rounds to assess the functionality of the equipment? Has anyone's ER improved in this area and would like to share tips?

Sorry, my response devolved into a rant and I didn't even address your primary concern in your post.

My advice - ask around your fellow staff ('specially the old timers) and see if anyone had or if there was a dedicated post to managing products/supplies/equipment to your department.

If the answer was that there used to be one but budget cuts did away with it - well, you're in a bit of a spot. You could be magnanimous and "volunteer" your services to fill in the gap for the good of the department... for a 'slight bump in pay' :-)

If the answer was that there never was anyone designated to take care of the issue - well, you could probably wing it your way.... if you're willing!

Make an offer to management. Extol the virtues of having a dedicated member of staff to keep an eye on equipment and supplies that the department needs to serve patients. This will cut down on waste, assist RN satisfaction with their jobs which will ultimately benefit patients (and hence their scores.) It will also help identify equipment malfunction sooner and thus prevent adverse patient outcomes.

(I don't know where you work, but) Depending on how serious you are about it - you could pitch for a new position all together!

Or you could negotiate a decent bump in your pay for the added responsibility....

cheers,