Ever work in a facility where there are no TB syringes? I had to give
morphine injections to a dying patient the other night and, was surprised to
find that this place used 1cc insulin syringes for this and for heparin and PPDs as well, I would presume. I was told by the staff that it was a major issue to ask for any IM syringes.
I can understand being thrifty, but most LTC facilities are privately owned, sometimes by a group of investors or in this case by a family, living far away in a sunbelt state. This is just one example of their cost saving measures.
They also have the very cheapest, flimsiest gauze face masks that wouldn't protect you from a good sneeze or anything else.
It is not unusual to postpone obtaining urine specs because there are no
cath kits or the components to make a kit. It is becoming harder each year
to work in these places. I pity the staff since I work thru an agency and
I'm glad I found this thread! I'm a third-year (final year) nursing student in NZ. We do our clinical practice in both public (government funded) hospitals and private (trust-owned) elderly care/long term care facilities. In the public hospital, yes, we can be a little wasteful on tubes of creams, packets of gauze etc - but always return unopened packets of supplies to the supplies room/cupboard. But the elderly care facilities were terrible - I saw open, oozing pressure sores (badly managed) scrubbed with pieces of dirty, dusty gauze from a long-since opened packet! Everything that could possibly be re-washed and re-used, was. It was so unhygenic. I laughed when I thought - perhaps I should just suggest they re-wash the Depends and use them another time on another patient - but I didn't because I thought they would probably say, "Good idea!" !!
I'm glad I found this thread! I'm a third-year (final year) nursing student in NZ. We do our clinical practice in both public (government funded) hospitals and private (trust-owned) elderly care/long term care facilities. In the public hospital, yes, we can be a little wasteful on tubes of creams, packets of gauze etc - but always return unopened packets of supplies to the supplies room/cupboard. But the elderly care facilities were terrible - I saw open, oozing pressure sores (badly managed) scrubbed with pieces of dirty, dusty gauze from a long-since opened packet! Everything that could possibly be re-washed and re-used, was. It was so unhygenic. I laughed when I thought - perhaps I should just suggest they re-wash the Depends and use them another time on another patient - but I didn't because I thought they would probably say, "Good idea!" !!
Ewwwww, that's sick. I would hate to be a patient there.
I work in ltc, and we are always running short on accu-check strips. We have 3 units and each unit has alot of diabetics receving q6hr checks. anyhow, the don accused the nurses of taking them home. yeah right, there is a market for these things and we are selling them for extra $$$$ lmaoooo. I politely told her that perhaps they should quit admitting people with diabetes then we wouldnt have to worry. One day, we did run out of strips and we couldnt do the 1130 am blood glucose checks.
Everything that could possibly be re-washed and re-used, was. It was so unhygenic. I laughed when I thought - perhaps I should just suggest they re-wash the Depends and use them another time on another patient - but I didn't because I thought they would probably say, "Good idea!" !! 
lisamaree
19 Posts
I'm glad I found this thread! I'm a third-year (final year) nursing student in NZ. We do our clinical practice in both public (government funded) hospitals and private (trust-owned) elderly care/long term care facilities. In the public hospital, yes, we can be a little wasteful on tubes of creams, packets of gauze etc - but always return unopened packets of supplies to the supplies room/cupboard. But the elderly care facilities were terrible - I saw open, oozing pressure sores (badly managed) scrubbed with pieces of dirty, dusty gauze from a long-since opened packet!
Everything that could possibly be re-washed and re-used, was. It was so unhygenic. I laughed when I thought - perhaps I should just suggest they re-wash the Depends and use them another time on another patient - but I didn't because I thought they would probably say, "Good idea!" !! 