Just Go Pee!

armyrn · Apr 10, 2002

foley w/ leg bag, empty leg bag as needed.

hapeewendy · Apr 10, 2002

you have NO idea how many times I've wanted to shove my patient off the commode and take his/her place!

just kidding but seriously , people need to urinate, why are nurses supposed to be able to squelch that basic human function?

foley with a leg bag would be okay except for the whole insertion of the foley part of it, other than that , perfect!

other slogans/campaigns should be

aimed at allowing us to get off our feet for more than five minutes a shift, we could get a picture of horrible looking feet, bunions , callouses the whole nine yards and title it

"YOUR NURSES FEET"

seriously the main problems we have at work are being able to pee, eat and sit....

we dont make our patients hold their urine, we let them eat their meals when they come, and we sit them up in a chair when they want

why cant we do the same for ourselves ever?

kewlnurse · Apr 10, 2002

I can't understand it when nurses say they don't have time to pee. I have never gone 15 minutes longer than when i have first felt the urge, whether it was on a med surge floor with 12 patients or the unit with 2 or 3 vented patients. More of a time management issue I suppose

Trauma Columnist · Apr 10, 2002

I'm the night charge nurse in busy, level I ED and I do go (routinely) 10 hours into the shift before I get potty break. It is NOT a time management issue for me, but what does one do when one ALWAYS is short nurses, most recently six nurses short on Sunday night?

babs_rn · Apr 10, 2002

Originally posted by Huganurse
Perhaps some of you whizzes could come with more slogans for our campaign? How about a gif or JPeg for us to print up and hang at work! :)

Ha Ha Ha...your pun was not lost on me!!! (whizzes) :eek: :roll :roll :roll

babs

live4today, RN · Apr 11, 2002

Charge nurses should be the ones to watch a nurses patients when she/he has to go to the potty. If she/he isn't taking any patients herself/himself, there should be no reason why she/he couldn't 'patient sit' while a staff member goes to the potty.

Also, this is another reason why CNA's on the floor come in handy. They can handle NONnursing issues long enough until the nurse goes potty. As nurses, we stand at the medcart waiting to pull drugs for a longer period of time than it would take for us to relieve our bladders. You only have one bladder, so treat it special no matter what's going on on the floor. Whenever I had to potty, I WENT! There was always a bathroom in or near the nurses lounge to use. Also, perhaps nurses need to schedule their potty breaks more regularly, even if you don't have to go, make a habit of voiding once every two hours. This should cut down on the "I gotta go, gotta go" syndrome four hours or more into the shift. :)

Fgr8Out · Apr 11, 2002

Originally posted by cheerfuldoer
perhaps nurses need to schedule their potty breaks more regularly, even if you don't have to go, make a habit of voiding once every two hours. This should cut down on the "I gotta go, gotta go" syndrome four hours or more into the shift. :)

We already subject ourselves to so many health risks, just by virtue of our Profession (back strain, nasty virulent organisms). Why do we want to add the embarassment of future incontinence (not to mention potential surgery for bladder suspensions, etc....) by denying ourselves (or denying each other!!) the right to use the bathroom a few times each shift?

MY solution??? TEAMWORK!! For heaven sake, OFFER to keep an eye on your co-workers patients for that very short amount of time each of us needs to GO. ASK your co-worker when you have to go to watch your patients for a few moments and BE THERE for them when they need a short respite.

We do such a wonderful job caring for everyone else... let's put some emphasis on caring for ourselves. :)

NurseDennie, BSN, RN · Apr 11, 2002

I'm in research now, but I definitely "held it" when I was bedside nursing. Partially a time management issue, I suppose. Although I'm sure you didn't mean to be snide, Kewl, it felt to me like you were saying "I'm a better nurse, so I have time to pee." I think it's ralso a matter of priorities. Where I worked, the staff bathroom was in a centrally-located area that was a bit of a hike from the patient rooms. Good planning, there. So there is always the feeling of if you have to go, you probably should do "this" first, or finish up "that." That kind of stuff.

I personally found that having a full bladder gave me a better success ratio with starting the IV's on the older population. I went in there with the attitude that I had less than three minutes to get an IV in (usually for another nurse who had tried already a couple of times) or my bladder was going to burst -- or more likely, leak!! The more pressure on my bladder, the quicker I got those IV's in.

Seriously, I do think that this kind of issue goes along with the attitude that if you hurt yourself, it's because your nursing practice is faulty. If you haven't strained a muscle yet, you're going to, and if you haven't held urine longer than was comfortable, your turn is coming up. JMHO

Love

Dennie

night owl · Apr 11, 2002

YOU are #1! When I gotta go, I go. Simple. (Depends how much coffee I had prior to getting to work). I make it a point to go before I start workiking, before my med pass so that I don't have to stop in the middle of it. And how long does it take to go??? You go in, sit down, do your thang, wipe, pull em up, wash your hands. What's that a whole 5 minutes maybe? Now if someone is choking to death, or if some one is having a cardiac arrest, then I'll hold it, but most of the time I can take 5 minutes to go to the BR. People have knocked on the door and said "Mr. So n So needs a pain pill." I'll say, "OK, I'll be right out." No big deal, no problem. If you can't take 5 minutes to relieve yourself, then there's something wrong. Of course this is in LTC. It maybe different in the hospital setting, but even then, I'd find 5 minutes to empty the old bladder. The IV would have to wait five minutes, but only if I had to go that badly.

BlueBear · Apr 11, 2002

I believe this is part of the reason why nurses are not taken seriously and are not respected. For goodness sake, if you have to urinate you notify the charge that you will be "not available" for a few minutes and YOU GO! That is politically correct. As far as I am concerned, if you have to pee, you just go and do what you have to do and I highly doubt anyone will expire in the meantime! I work ED, but really, if the urge strikes then the nurse just needs to go, knowing that everyone can hang on for a few minutes longer!

hapeewendy · Apr 11, 2002

I dont think its really about time management

I consider myself very organized etc

I think its the fact that for those of us that dont seem to get the chance to pee its because we take on a task at hand instead of putting our elimination needs first.

for example, I grab the key to the staff washroom and then am approached by a family member wanting a status check, or the RPN I'm working with informs me that someone needs analgesic

I usually just do the task and then go

I dont hold it to unbearable lengths but I dont put it as high on my uhhhh priority list as I perhaps should.