Hospital Converting Practice to Only Metric

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi

I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

Thanks Keisha

Specializes in Med/Surg/ICU/Stepdown.
Hi

I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

Thanks Keisha

My hospital utilizes computer charting and as a result the information can be put in either in US or metric. For example, I can input a height of 5'7" and the computer converts it for me. This makes it much easier to document and not have to automatically do the conversion in my head. I suppose on the other hand, this makes me look incredibly lazy, but … :nailbiting:

Specializes in NICU.

I think we use strictly metric (or at least I remember converting height in inches to centimeters to put in the computer). I'm not 100% sure, I haven't been on an adult floor since November. It didn't seem particularly difficult. Our bed scales could provide measurements in pounds and kilograms and we had a little conversion chart at the nurses desk to convert inches to centimeters.

Specializes in Pedi.

I've always worked pedi so that's all we did in the hospital. Scales were locked on kg and thermometers were locked on Celsius. Computer charting only allowed you to enter weight in kg, height in cm and temperature in Celsius.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

Educational program?

Instead of "training" or an "educational program" how about use of a measuring device with the appropriate scale??

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.
Educational program? Instead of "training" or an "educational program" how about use of a measuring device with the appropriate scale??[/

I often chart patients stated height, which they give you in feet and inches. The average person doesn't usually tell you how tall they are in centimeters so I could see how training would be appropriate if the computer does not automatically do the conversion for you.

Specializes in Oncology.

It disturbs me that there are hospitals that aren't yet all metric. Medicine is science based, and science is metric. It's even scarier to think that some hospitals are using metric in some areas and imperial in others. Way too much risk for error. My hospital has been metric as long as I've worked there.

Specializes in Emergency.

Inches to cm multiply by 2.54

Lbs to kg divide by 2.2.

Educated! ;)

Ismp just put out best practice recommendations on this so I'm happy to hear there are hospitals where they do not support entering both English and metric values into the computer. While we may get these values from out patients, we are in the frontline of making sure that the right information gets to the people that need it. And that information should be in metric. I work with hospitals that haven't made that transition yet so i hoped to hear how others have this made the change within their org and culture if standardization was new to them.

Specializes in Critical Care/Coronary Care Unit,.

The various hospitals that I've worked at have strictly used the metric system. As far as doing it, basic math skills come in handy. After a while, you get used to it.

Specializes in Pedi.
Ismp just put out best practice recommendations on this so I'm happy to hear there are hospitals where they do not support entering both English and metric values into the computer. While we may get these values from out patients, we are in the frontline of making sure that the right information gets to the people that need it. And that information should be in metric. I work with hospitals that haven't made that transition yet so i hoped to hear how others have this made the change within their org and culture if standardization was new to them.

There was a time when I worked in the hospital where the scale could switch between lb and kg. The computer only allowed you to enter the weight in kg though and, this was pediatrics so all drug doses were based on weight in kg. I believe there was a situation where a nurse weighed a child (in lb) and then entered that weight into the computer (and computer weights were kg). In the computer the child was listed to have weighed more than 2x what he actually did which led to not good things. This is, I believe, what led to all the scales being locked on kg.

Our thermometers had the ability to switch back and forth between Fahrenheit and Celsius. Students who thought they knew better than the rest of us were usually the ones changing them. Then they wondered why the computer would not allow them to chart a temperature of 97.9 degrees (Celsius) and flagged it as being significantly out of range.

Specializes in Med Surg.
Hi

I'm looking for examples of hospitals who have made the move to have their nurses document patient heights and weights in only metric values. Pediatric nurses are used to it but adult nurses are not. I'd like to know what training or educational programs or tools where helpful in getting the staff to make the change and be mostly comfortable with it.

Thanks Keisha

EHR flowsheets can be set to report data in metric, but data has to be input with a unit. (lb, kg...).

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