Double Briefing

[michael79]

I recently became the nurse manager of my unit. To get myself better acquainted with the staff and their daily routine I worked all 3 shifts the past 3 weeks. One thing I have noticed is that all 3 shifts are double briefing the residents. Each shift blames the next and says "oh, I found so and so patient this way' or 'She's a heavy wetter, so we have to'. I stated that it is against state regs to double brief, but they are still doing it! What do you see in your facility and what can I do to get this to stop?

[nightmare, RN]

Here is an aside. Who ever came up with the toileting/changing every 2 hours? It is NOT normal to be put on the toilet every 2 hours. I don't know one person who actually pees every 2 hours. Again we carry on with outdated standards because no one has the nerve to question what's 'always been done'.

I agree with that.Research has been carried out that found that if you toilet every 2 hours then the bladder will expect to empty every two hours.The trick in retraining is to lengthen the time between toileting so that the bladder can wait for longer periods.Of course this is less convenient for carers who are rushing about so the old change 2 hourly continues.We have a check 2 hourly but if the pad is not wet enough to change it is not changed which i find thoroughly degrading to the individual but that is our policy brought about by a tight budget on continence products.