I hate when my co-workers are wasteful.

[RN1982]

delete.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

In our rooms, the meds are kept in locked drawers at the bedside. The only place to prepare them is the counter by the sink. I am forced to clean up the counters in order to have a place to prepare meds, because people just pile things onto the counter with wanton abandon. I agree, it would be nice if everyone would help keep things tidy.

[birdgardner]

I LOVE those wipes! As a pt, I couldn't shower because of surgical incision. Those wipes stayed warm the whole time; I felt clean when I was done.

We never had them in my clinicals so I don't know how well they work on a poopy pt. But I would much rather bathe with a pack of those than have to keep dipping in the same basin and have that basin on the table I eat on.

If there are any typos, forgive me. The line of type keeps disappearing behind an ad for degrees on line and I can't see what I am typing. Margins please!

[RN1982]

I don't mind using the wipes for baths. I will alternate wipes and soap/water if I'm working a few days in a row with the same patient. But come on, there is no reason why there should be FIVE bath basins for one patient.

[Magsulfate, BSN, RN]

Well, when a patient is on isolation/contact precautions, it reallt is a PITA to see if they already have one. So in this case I get th waste.

You're right. I see myself, all gowned up, double gloved and masked. Now, do you take all that stuff off, throw it away, wash your hands and go back out to get more stuff? No, I get what I need before going in there. After I've pilfered around a little bit and found they have more, usually I will organize it and have it ready for the next time. When the family is in there and there's a code brown,, people are standing all around, you just want to get what you need and come back, kick the family out, get it done real fast and go. Looking through all the drawers and stacking supplies from god knows where in the room is just not on my mind at the moment.

But I agree sometimes nurses can be wasteful. You can't reuse those supplies on a different patient, even if they're not officially in a contact precautions status. I would still not use it on anyone else. Once it enters the room, it is there to stay.

[mom4josh]

I hate wastefulness, too. But what so many people don't understand is that wastefulness not only hikes every patient's bill, but it cuts into our paycheck. I don't know about other facilities, but on our evaluations there is a category for budget. If the whole department is over budget, we all get a low score for that category; if we are under budget, we get a higher number. This affects our paychecks, but people don't see it that way when they are doing their jobs.

Two areas of wastefulness really bug me:

1) The people who just roll up washcloths in with diapers and chuck them in the trash (couldn't believe some of the people who do this).

2) The people who throw syringes and wrappers and all kinds of trash into the sharps container. Don't they know that this stuff costs more (quite a bit more) to dispose of than regular trash? Only needles and glass should go into these boxes. Grrrr!

I'm done... for now.

[Magsulfate, BSN, RN]

ohhh yeah,, the sharps container, I've seen some weird stuff in that thing. Totally inappropriate to throw trash in those.

[yousoldtheworld]

That drives me nuts, too.

When I worked at the hospital, I'd often go into a room and find 3 or 4 bath basins, several bottles each of mouthwash, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, sometimes multiple bedpans or urinals...all on patients who were generally there for a week or less. Why??

I know several people I used to work with who would take all supplies in with them the first time they went in a room each day, to keep them from having to run back to the supply room. Call me crazy, but I'd rather have to make a trip to get something later than having to maneuver around piles of extra supplies.

[yousoldtheworld]

Not only do I hate wastefulness, but I also hate when there is nothing you need in the patient's room! When you're all gowned and gloved, and need to do a linen change, and there are no linens, no chux, no washcloths, no soap....GRRRRR!!!!! I always try to make sure I leave supplies for the next shift, because I know what a PITA it is to be turning a patient, only to discover that they're dirty/wet, and there is nothing available to get them cleaned up.

YES, that is one of my biggest pet peeves. I always, always at least pass a clean set of linens/towels and washcloths to each room by the end of my shift.

It's not as much of an issue now, because I work in a memory care unit of an assisted living type facility...most are fairly continent and there are no isolation patients. But when I worked at the hospital, NOTHING was more annoying than getting gowned and gloved up to turn an isolation patient, finding a mess, having to strip off the gown and gloves, go get linens, come back and REgown/glove, etc.

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

Will have to agree.. we are entirely a "disposable" oriented society and have gotten far too dependent on everything just being forever available in some deep magic well which never runs dry.

Waste is costly.. and we wonder why costs keep going up? Someone has to purchase these supplies, and the cost is added or incorporated somewhere. It even affects salaries as it all trickles down...........

Waste all too often IS due to simple laziness.. and it's very disturbing. :stone

[yousoldtheworld]

Two areas of wastefulness really bug me:

1) The people who just roll up washcloths in with diapers and chuck them in the trash (couldn't believe some of the people who do this).

.

YES. I saw this a lot at the first nursing home I worked at, because we had to rinse out all of our soiled washcloths, towels, and incontinence pads before putting them in the laundry. Spraying them out was awful, I'll admit, and it was messy and gross...so to avoid it, many of the other aides would throw away the washcloths. I couldn't ever bring myself to be so wasteful, though.

I'm glad I don't have to spray out dirty linens anymore, at least.

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

There is nothing I hate more then seeing a ton of half-filled bottles of shampoo or lotion or something like that laying around in a patients room because rather then use up the bottle of shampoo the patient already has I've seen some people just grab a new bottle and use it so then I have to stand there and unscrew the top of the bottle of whatever and pour it into another half filled bottle so that it doesn't go to waste (which takes up my time and energy.) I don't mind if you put a few extra items in a patient's room so you will have the supplies on hand when the patient needs them but there is no need to be excessive because that just leads to waste.

!Chris

[meadow85]

It can be frustrating because that's our budget money going down the drain and people are oblivious to that.