Equipment in pt rooms

[nursling2012]

Hi everyone, I have a question about necessary equipment in patient rooms. I have been working on a med/surg floor for a little over a year. As a new grad I worked in an ER and checking our rooms for proper equipment was a priority when starting our shift...suction, O2 wall set up, ambu bag, etc etc. I realize that all the things needed in an ER setting aren't practical or necessary for floor nursing. However, we don't have enough wall suction set ups for every room on our unit. Also, we frequently have to track down O2 wall set ups when it is needed, which makes me think that we also don't have adequate supply of those although I haven't done an inventory

Long story short....aren't wall suction and oxygen equipment pretty basic and necessary items for every pt room on a med surg floor? When patients code or we have a rapid response, I find it entirely inappropriate to have to run around the unit hunting down wall suction and oxygen. Am I wrong or paranoid? What other equipment do yall have available in every patient room?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I would suggest you talk to your department manager about this issue. Although there are some minimum accreditation/licensure standards, each organization may handle it differently. For instance, in some hospitals all equipment is 'owned' by a central biomed department as opposed to those in which each department has to purchase their own equipment. There is probably a formal plan/description somewhere -and your manager can help you find it.

Those of us who are used to working in higher intensity settings such as ICU or ED tend to want to "build parking lots for the Christmas rush". We want to be absolutely prepared for the worst possible scenario. However, this is really not necessary on the average MedSurg unit which has historical data to show that no more than 1/3 of patients are on O2 or require suction at any given time. This sounds like a great PI project for your unit. Talk to your manager about it.