Water

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Where you work, are you allowed to have water (in a covered container) at your workstation?

Specializes in I/DD.

Technically we can only have covered water, but they will have to pry my morning coffee from my cold dead hands.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
Haha, same for us!

Days has NO food or drink at the desk, ever.

PMs starts breaking out the water bottles and power bars around 5 (after checking that the manager has actually left)

NOCs? It's like "Move all those charts, we're bringing in a buffet!"

Well, you can include days and afternoons on the buffet line as long as a weekend!

Well, aside from any Joint Commission or OSHA standard, computers and liquid don't mix, food and keyboard don't get along well either. I came from an electronics background - no liquids allowed anywhere near the equipment. I still cringe when I see it anything that could spill onto a computer near it. You know, what ever CAN go wrong ..... Okay with having it where you can conveniently drink it - just not where it can spill onto the computer or other electronic things.

Not at our workstations. We're told it's a New York State OSHA rule.

We can have food/drinks in the conference room or the break room, but not at the nurses station or in the kitchenette. (That's right, no food or drinks in the kitchen.)

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

No food or drink allowed at the nurses' station or on the med carts. Residents can swipe it, liquids spill on the computers, OSHA says no, DPH in Massachusetts says no. There is a kitchenette behind every nurses' station. Water is plentiful.

Specializes in Critical Care.
No food or drink allowed at the nurses' station or on the med carts. Residents can swipe it, liquids spill on the computers, OSHA says no, DPH in Massachusetts says no. There is a kitchenette behind every nurses' station. Water is plentiful.

Liquids can spill which is why liquids must have a lid. OSHA doesn't prohibit beverages at Nursing stations, just in "patient care" areas.

The Mass dept of health doesn't prohibit beverages at Nursing stations either:

"Drinks are permitted in the nursing station in the low anterior spaces as long as they are in areas where they can not be contaminated e.g.

where specimens are left for transport. Drinks are not allowed in the

hallway e.g. on carts, shelves, etc. "

http://mghpcs.org/RR/Documents/resource_guide_PCSlicensedstaff.pdf

Specializes in L&D.

We aren't supposed to according to the rules, but we do during all shifts(and so does the mgr). There is no water fountain nearby and our ktchen/breakroom isn't that close. What should we all do? Get dehydrated?

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
At my last hospital job, we could have any drink as long as it was covered.

ANY drink?

Hmm...

Specializes in Assisted Living nursing, LTC/SNF nursing.

Isn't it an OSHA law?

ANY drink?

Hmm...

Any lawful drink...

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

OSHA prohibits drinks in "patient care areas," which can be interpreted pretty much any way management chooses. The break room is not a patient care area -- or is it? When the families of long term patients are invited by some nurses into the break room to partake of our potluck, it becomes a patient care area. (I have colleagues who really bond with families.) So technically, we can't have food or drink in our break room as long as some nurses are inviting visitors in.

The nurse's station could easily be defined as a non-patient-care area, but our Surgical Director hates to see nurses with coffee or water. He threw out my Starbuck's one afternoon. The next day, when I found HIM rounding with a cup of coffee, that cup of coffee magically disappeared. I've learned that when I have my Starbuck's at the desk, I hide it behind the computer, and instead of putting my name on it, I put a symbol. That way he can't pull it out from behind the computer and dress me down in public.

It's funny, though, how that surgeon's coffee keeps disappearing from wherever he leaves it . . . .

Specializes in Critical Care.

OSHA doesn't prohibit covered beverages at a Nursing station, so long as it is an area where exposure to blood or other infectious pathogens due to proximity to these substances is unlikely.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=25506

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