....and they had Dynamaps in every room!! (a nurse has gotta dream!)

[Walden-Puddle, RN]

Is it too much to ask? I mean seriously!! How much time have you WASTED running around your unit looking for a (working!) vitals signs machine each week. Does management not get it? Not to mention the infection issues dragging a machine from room to room using the same blood pressure cuffs etc.

Anyways... Not only do I think there should be a dedicated unit for each room, but (and I'm going out on a limb here folks..so get ready to catch me!) I think they should be built into the darn beds..or at least attachable to the beds (Can I get an Amen!)

I know. I know. I'm dreaming. It's too much to ask. Go ahead. Hit me with all the negativity and "reality" you care to. But a nurse has gotta have a dream!!

[AggieNurse99, BSN, RN]

Wow. What a great dream. Maybe it will be fulfilled after our new directors and managers actually get suction and oxygen set up in each room too! Keep dreaming Walden!

[noahsmama]

I worked at a facility (peds hospital) that had an automated bp cuff, pulse ox and cr monitor built into the monitor at each bedside. Plus disposable bp cuffs in sizes ranging from newborns to adult, and oxygen and suction at every bedside. It pretty much all worked, or if it didn't, it was fixed quickly. It was great! The only thing we didn't have was the "large adult" size bp cuff, which we could have used for some of our obese teenagers. We didn't have a thermometer in every room, but we generally had enough to go around. We didn't always have a gauge for the oxygen in each room, but there were close to enough that you could "borrow" one from a room where the pt was stable enough that you knew they were pretty unlikely to need O2.

And yes, it would be great if all facilities had all of this stuff at every bedside!

[Lizzie21]

I love that dream. I wish there was an individual one for each room. It would definitely save some time running around and more time with the patients.

[RNperdiem, RN]

When I was a CNA there were always more CNA's than Dynamaps.

Some CNAs would get to work early to hide the working Dynamap in a patient room assigned to them.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Nice dream but at our hospital dynamaps are not allowed unless you can not get a manual BP.. The rational behind this policy "they are not as accurate as a manual". We have to document in the progress notes we used it and why. We also have to fill out a flow sheet at the nurses station.. We have a dynamap and in the even another unit needs one, they come get ours.. Not all units have one at my facility and yes it is a very large hospital..

[himilayaneyes]

We must KEEP HOPE ALIVE!! Dynamaps in every room...pulse ox machines that actually work....a nurse can dream...hated running around looking for those things when I worked tele.

[LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN]

This dream can exist, it does in some places,

I work in an ED and every room has a cardiac monitor, b/p with multiple sizes of cuffs, pulse ox, O2, themometer, and a care cart with IV supplies, tubing, bags, tape. In every room.

This was after a huge remodel and years of complaints from the staff that they could not do their jobs when consitantly looking for equipment.

[Deb123j]

Most of our rooms have cardiac monitors (most pts are on monitors continuously). It is however extremely frustrating to have the monitor and no cords!!!

[cardiacmadeline, RN]

Guess I am one of the lucky ones. We have a Dynamap mounted next to the bedside in each room, and all of the different sized blood pressure cuffs in the rooms too!

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

We have cardiac monitors in each room I'll usually just use. Then I only have to look for a thermometer. Every patient gets their own BP cuff that gets thrown out after they are discharged.

[HamsterRN, ADN, RN]

We used to have this problem but now our Dynamaps sit in a closet and are only used as an occasional temporary replacement for a continuous pulse ox. We only use manual BP's now, I can't say I miss the Dynamaps at all.