Hydration Stations in the Nursing Station

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

I know this is an old subject that keeps getting kicked around. But I thought I would throw it out there again...

Over the years some Hospitals have developed "hydration stations", "clean areas', etc. and have been able to pass there surveys.

The Administrators at my facility challenged my dept to come up with a presentation. If we where able to come up with enough data, they would allow us a hydration station as well.

We are finding it more challenging then we thought. We found 3 fairly decent articles but they are not giving us the data punch we want. So, we decided to reach out & ask if anyone can suggest any articles that might help us obtain more data.

Specializes in OB.
Otherwise, Pt/family will not seen staff hydrating.

God forbid! :laugh:

It sounds like you're working really hard to get things changed, and I wish you the best of luck. As someone who's always been a big water drinker, ridiculous rules about drinks at work that have no basis in common sense make me homicidal.

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
I never get why hospitals say you can't have drinks at the nurses station due to JHACO. That's simply not true. You can. They need to have lids and naked with dates. It's pretty simple. We were surveyed not that long ago.

It's OSHA :(

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
If any staff is seen drinking, then pt/family would have to be in a certain 10 ft area in the hall (but there is no loitering allowed in the halls). Otherwise, Pt/family will not seen staff hydrating.[/Quote]

Why would this be an issue? Is the idea that 10 ft is an occupationally safe distance, or is the issue of pt/family perceptions? If it's the latter -- don't even consider that an issue!

I don't know, my unit has several ice machines, used for drinking water and ice needed for ABGs/lactates and for ice packs. It's fit for pt consumption, so no issue with staff drinking it.

If admin says no go to all of your proposals, they need to be prepared to cover the floor for water breaks -- so that you can leave the floor for water, prn for nurse comfort and *truly* without concern for pt safety. If they can't present you with a solution, I honestly would contact employee health and OSHA.

Either that or openly ignore policy -- you shouldn't work dehydrated, end of discussion.

I think she's just saying that the likelihood of patients and visitors seeing staff drinking water is low; that they would have to enter a very small area in order to even see it. I know it's sad, but I think they are right to consider this factor in their proposal, since we all know that's what this is really about. It has been repeatedly proven that OSHA's guidelines are not that difficult to satisfy - - and yet the excuses continue. It's about "how it looks" [according to those who have lost touch with reality because they themselves are not subject to the guideline].

A bunch of nonsense.

You are being asked to prove a negative.

Ask admin to prove that their choice of sock colors is safe. Probably limited data on that, because it is as dumb as the drink thing.

I would ask for the data to support the hazards of drinking water at the nursing station.

The 2 biggest lies in nursing right now is that Joint Commission cares about drinks in the nursing station and that Magnet Status has something to do with BSN push.

Neither are true.

Specializes in ICU; Telephone Triage Nurse.

I know the inability to relieve said hydration has always been a major issue for harried nurse's providing patient care in any setting.

Perhaps nurse UTI's associated with patient care would be a good research study?

Specializes in Flight, ER, Transport, ICU/Critical Care.
Does your unit have a galley or ice machine for pt use? Does admin believe it to be clean enough for food/drinks/ice that is to be served to pts? Are nurses, after proper hand hygiene, sanitary enough to procure these items and serve them to pts?

If so, there is no issue with nurses drinking water there. Microbes don't fly away when a nurse fills a pt's water pitcher, and then go all Blitzkrieg on the place when a nurse fills a cup for him/herself to drink.

You don't need EBP articles -- LOGIC should suffice here.

NOW, NOW -- don't be trying to use LOGIC. Logic wasn't covered in the accelerated 2-bit managerial program they took so they did not have to ever touch a patient again. Okay, okay they might be a "nurse" but hated it and never worked except "PRN" (which was never) so they could get back to school so they could get away from the icky bedside and to have enough "street cred" to totally manage every aspect of clinical practices and even all clinicians.

Bless their hearts, these managers just hated working weekends and nights and needed a better schedule cause ... (getting married/pregnant/my hubby/new baby/travel/vacation/need weekends off/bad co-workers/commute/nights seem longer/coworkers are jealous/bad hair in the night air/xxxxxxxx) reasons!!!

LOGIC FAILED WITH THIS BUNCH A LOOOOONG TIME AGO.

THEY ARE NOT "DEHYDRATED" bet there's plenty of drinks at their desks and they sit on their bums - THEY ARE NOT SKIPPING BREAKS/MEALS .... they are even PEEING when they want !!!

Show a consequence. FAINT from "dehydration" - lol. That's all some management types understand.

Specializes in Med-surg, telemetry, oncology, rehab, LTC, ALF.

The first acute care floor I worked on, we could have drinks at the nursing station - they had to have a lid and be clearly marked. Most nurses there claimed a computer as soon as they got there by leaving their drink next to the computer. Our nursing station was mostly closed off, though, with very little likelihood of exposure to anything other than carpal tunnel from repeated clicking of "tab" while charting. :banghead: Our break room was also very far away. We also had a bathroom built into our nursing station, as well as lockers, where we could keep whatever - food, drinks, makeup, our bags, etc. It would have been nice, if it weren't for the fact that our charge nurse was, well, in charge of yelling out when a call bell went off, since we couldn't see or hear them when sitting at the nursing station. :nono:

Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

How about an article called "Healthy nurses who don't have cotton mouth and raging UTIs are less likely to be out sick"

Sorry, I'll look around though and see what I can find.

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