Is Jevity considered "medicine"?

[tracyIngalls]

Hello all from the confused daughter of a patient. My mom has been on Jevity for 8 years now, fed through a drip all night long, peg site. For years she hooked herself up at night at bedtime etc etc.

Now she is in a nursing home. She likes them to start her feeding at 9pm so that she can be finished at about 8am. But sometimes the nurses don't get to her until 11pm or midnight so the feeding time throws off her whole morning.

Since my mom and I are experienced with her feeding machine etc (we had to show the nurses how it works)....if I'm at the hospital I was turning on her machine for her at night. (She can't reach it herself). Now the nurses tell me that Jevity is considered medicine and I am not allowed to do this for her.

I don't want to be Miss Unco-operative Patient but I don't know the reasoning behind this. If Mavis next door can feed her husband his applesauce, I don't know why I can't get my mom her Jevity. And I'm wondering, if my mom could reach the on switch herself, would they allow HER to turn on her machine at night? She can't wait until 11pm for them to feed her, that's way too late. She rings her call button around 9:15pm if they haven't hooked her up but they don't answer until 10pm....the CNA who answers doesn't know how to turn on the machine and gets a nurse...it takes way too long.

Any words of wisdom are appreciated.

[monkeesilly]

In the hospitals around here (New Mexico) Jevity is concidered a medication... anything going in the body should be don by hospital staff, i.e. RN, LPN.. is your mothers doctor part of the nursing home, or is he/she a private doctor?? If he/she is part of the nursing home staff, then the doctor would be best to talk to the staff because his/her orders are not being brought out. If I were you, as a daughter I would look for any other means to change nursing homes if you have looked at your options and other things are not getting done. If the nursing home does consider Jevity as a medication they should have to administer it within a certain time frame just like "regular" medications.. If your mother needs something like a feeding tube and the staff is unaware how to use it etc, I would not leave her there for the reason that is how she is going to live.. If I may, if you and your sister are staying there all the time to watch the incompetent staff, then why not just take her home?? You might be able to have a home health come in and it be the same price?? not sure, right now I am doing home health and I do tube feedings for my client.. so if you wok full time, maybe you could get a home health company in just for that time. It doesn't have to be a nurse. I am a home health aide. Maybe you should try something like that??

[blueheaven]

These people need reported. As the OP stated on page 1, there are channels you can go through. You should not be expected to hire a nurse while your mother is a pt. there. Jevity is considered a medication and by not administering it properly, that is an error.

[Hygiene Queen]

This thread is very old and the OP long gone, I'm sure, but I would be so very interested to hear how this all turned out.

Very sad and a lot to be learned from this.

I wish that family the best, whatever their current situation.

[newlpn80]

i was always taught that anything that a doctor ordred, o2 etc is a medication.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

I treat nutrition like medications...all the checks including right time.

[princess007]

Talk to the DON there and they can get an order from the doctor and train you , but i m sure they are going to make you sign some papers, after all she is your mom and they cant refuse you.

[sharonp30]

I would think that if I had to bring in my own pump and my own food, I would be able to turn it on. Damn the regulations. Her mother has to be fed. It sounds like someone needs to call the state and report this facility.

[roseonye]

Jevity is a medication because it is prescribed my the Dr. Maybe you can ask her Dr or dietician they may consider as you have experience with things like that. Good luck to you and your mom.

[NurseGuyBri]

I believe this is an older post, but here's my $0.02. Jevity is not a medication by the idea of "concentrated pill/prescription/etc", but it is a Physician's order, and in most Nursing homes (with the unlimited regulations upon regulations) it is considered a medication for liability purposes. The OP has a complex situation. First of all, the facility should (and in my state is regulated to do so) sit with the familiy and care plan (as previously indicated) the safe administration of the enteral therapy by the family. Although the OP knows how to do it, he/she must be educated on the facility's procedure. If this is CARE PLANNED and DOCUMENTED by the nurse, that nurse is in compliance with in regulation (again, depends on state) and shouldn't have negative outcomes. You see, the problem is that once you go from home into a nursing home, you gain and lose some things. First, you gain the availability of a nurse 24 hours; You lose individual care. Many families believe by admitting their loved one into a facility that they are getting 1:1 care, and that is simply not the case. This facility that takes care of your mom appears to be missing a few things, as has been previously noted. Second, the nurse is now legally responsible for your mother's care. A previous poster said something along the lines of "if she can do it at home, she can do it there too in the facility" (sorry I didn't quote it and cant go back right now). The difference is the liability. Patients take their own pills at home, but once in a facility, that responsibility transfers to the nurse, which changes things. We have to protect our license. Finally, I think the major issue here isn't who does it or whose liscense is this or that, but it reeks of inexperienced nurses and a lack of knowledge on integrated nursing. I hope things have gotten better by now.