Education during medication pass

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I currently work in a transitional care unit at a rehabilitation facility. We receive patients I feel I am not trained to care for. If we do receive training its usually read this, sign this, and all of that occurs while you are doing your med pass. I feel this education/training is ineffective and puts me at risk. Is it common for nursing training and education to occur while you are working? I had 13+ patients that day with wound vacs, wound treatments MRSA-contact precautions, IV therapy/IV dressing changes, nephrostomy tube flushes and one patient with flu-droplet precautions. I feel overwhelmed just trying to provide care. How can I protect myself from being held responsible for this teaching that is occurring? Spoke with the educator about the timing of the training and apparently, management feels it is acceptable. Tells her this needs to get done and do it. What to do?

Specializes in Geriatrics w/rehab, LTC, hospice patient.

Hmm, that's not right. A busy med pass is not the right time to train staff on new subjects. It puts both you and your patients at risk since your undivided attention is not being given to either task. At my facility, they usually schedule several training sessions that you attend when you're not scheduled to work the floor and then if you feel like you need more training, you can always set up individualized sessions. See if you can get some time outside of work to ask questions if they're not willing to set up meetings for everyone outside of work. Otherwise you may want to start looking for a new job. This place does not seem committed to training competent employees.

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