I'm curious do you experience this too?

Nurses General Nursing

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The more nurses I speak to about this the more I hear about how long it takes to find stuff. Stuff like equipment, items from the store/stock room, finding information, keys, codes and the list goes on.

On one shift it took 35 minutes to find the bladder scanner because another ward didn't tell anyone that they took it to use on their ward. Drove me nuts! :no:

Is this happening to you too? Would you spend 10 minutes everyday or a shift just trying finding stuff?

Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

This is actually one of the things I love about my unit. All of our stock room items are kept in a supply Pyxis, so they are always in their place. We also have a beside cart in every single room which we keep stocked with commonly used items, lines, bedpans, etc. We also make sure we have enough IV pumps every morning and if we don't, they bring us some. I definitely spend less time looking for stuff here than I have other jobs

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I spend a lot of time trying to find stuff. I'm a float nurse and every single floor is different. It gets frustrating actually.

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I spend a lot of time trying to find stuff. I'm a float nurse and every single floor is different. It gets frustrating actually.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

You're brave to be a float nurse as that would be difficult having every ward set up differently.

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This is actually one of the things I love about my unit. All of our stock room items are kept in a supply Pyxis, so they are always in their place. We also have a beside cart in every single room which we keep stocked with commonly used items, lines, bedpans, etc. We also make sure we have enough IV pumps every morning and if we don't, they bring us some. I definitely spend less time looking for stuff here than I have other jobs

It makes a big difference by the sounds of it.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I frequently find that insufficient supplies and dirty/broken equipment is the fault of staff on the unit. Are they correctly charging equip used? Have they tagged broken equip for maint/central supply to fix? What's the facility policy for cleansing equip between pts - does hskpg/central sanitize it?

It's usually a failure of staff to follow the correct protocol that results in the problems that you all face.

And as for that key issue - it has gone home too many times in somebody's pocket. And then there's the problem of accessibility and theft. THEFT if a BIGGIE! Again staff at fault.

I too have experienced all these problems as staff and as supervisor. I know we're all super busy, but I try to find the causes to remedy the problem and that's where I find the root of the problem.

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Yes!!! One huge time waster is searching for items in our "point of use" room. They are constantly moving stuff around so it takes extra time to find a stat lock for a foley or whatever one might be looking for. Another time waster is the med scanner attached to the computer. I'm in the ICU so each room has its own computer. I often have scanners that malfunction and I am stuck trying to stick my fingers in the tiny holes to unplug and replug the scanner from the USB port. So frustrating!

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I frequently find that insufficient supplies and dirty/broken equipment is the fault of staff on the unit. Are they correctly charging equip used? Have they tagged broken equip for maint/central supply to fix? What's the facility policy for cleansing equip between pts - does hskpg/central sanitize it?

It's usually a failure of staff to follow the correct protocol that results in the problems that you all face.

And as for that key issue - it has gone home too many times in somebody's pocket. And then there's the problem of accessibility and theft. THEFT if a BIGGIE! Again staff at fault.

I too have experienced all these problems as staff and as supervisor. I know we're all super busy, but I try to find the causes to remedy the problem and that's where I find the root of the problem.

I've tagged equipment, then it's never to be seen again.

How is staff at fault for theft? AS a staff nurse, I've never had the power to hire a thief, generally it's management that hires thieves, not staff.

The root of the problem? Management that doesn't account for the fact that equipment does not last forever. Wear and tear from normal use is completely unexpected to them and unplanned for. And when it happens, money has not been budgeted to replace it. So it gets tagged (by the staff per protocol), and can't be repaired, and staff just has to do without until something bad happens because equipment couldn't be found in a timely manner and it's sufficiently obvious that it's not just the staff being too lazy to make a minimal effort to find it.

Perhaps if there was sufficient equipment on each floor, the equipment wouldn't have to disappear from floor to floor. Why on earth should a hospital with 8 floors only have one or two bladder scanners? A nursing home with 200 residents only have one or two lifts?

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.
I'm training at a new LTC facility. There are 3 floors with 2 units each. Today we needed a bed pan while I was working on the 3rd floor. None to be found on our unit. None on the other unit. So I went to the second floor to each of the 2 of their units. None. Went to the 1st floor. None. One of the 1st floor nurses told me there was a nursing storage unit in the basement, but I would have to find the key. Great, now Im on a key hunt. I eventually found the key, made my way to storage, somehow found the storage room they were talking about in the maze of the basement and FINALLY found a darn bed pan. If there weren't 2 of us nurses (because I was training with someone), how in the world would I gave had time for all that? So far I'm really liking the place, but like so many places, lack of supplies, or FINDING them, is a big issue.

Was it too late after you finally found the bed pan? Because that's just adds to the extra time.

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I hate having to search all over! We have 3 stock rooms. They are always changing what items are located in each of these. Usually we just run out of supplies and then you have to borrow from another unit, which then means they may run short or you owe the items back to them so when you get yours in you run out because they don't order extra to replace what you borrowed. It makes me NUTS!!

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Specializes in Trauma/Tele/Surgery/SICU.

This is my biggest complaint about both jobs I have held as an RN. It was really irritating as a med-surg RN. It is unforgivable as an ICU RN. I have had to search for working cables to hook up ECG, ART, CVP's etc, IV pumps, working suction regulators, suction tubing, IV tubing, Oxygen trees, nasal cannulas, transducer holders etc.!?!?!?!?! I have had to go to another floor to find supplies.

Just tonight I had to hunt down a working bed to admit a new pt. into. FIVE rooms later I found one that actually worked and had a scale. Then it was a hunt to find a transducer holder and working suction regulator. This is all and well if its a pt. coming from ER and I know they are intubated, have lines etc and can prepare for their arrival. It is a different story when it is a crumping patient, I really cannot leave their side to go off and hunt for equipment.

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10 minutes?? Ha. I spend way more time than that looking for things.

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While our unit supply rooms are usually kept pretty well stocked, the way they stock isn't logical. Biohazard bags are in a separate room from all the specimen collection supplies. Insulin syringes are across the room from fingerstick lancets and test strips. They "reorganize" the dressing supplies regularly, so you spend at least 5 minutes hunting for basic stuff.

Not to mention that Central Supply isn't centrally located for a lot of facilities.

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