15 minute checks

[GomezKar]

Can anyone tell me how they go about doing 15 minute checks on their units? Do you do them every 15 minutes or stager them and if so how is it worded in your policy? I would appreciate a sample of your policy and your form that you document on. We currently have a prefilled time on our form which obviously from a legal standpoint if something is not documented in "real time" this could be an issue. Please help!

[HappyPediRN]

We have prefilled forms for 15 minute checks and 5 minute checks for those on precautions. You better believe your butt they are done in real time on the dot of every 15 minutes. We have a small unit and the kids are usually close together or at least in a line of vision. It has never been an issue for us.

[goettin98]

We have 2 types of precautions- q15 minutes and q30 minutes. On our acute unit, most people are on the q15's. Sorry to say, but on our unit, we are forever playing catch up with these darn things. I have even had nightmares about these (not kidding!). I know that if Joint Commission or Public Health came in, that's the first thing they would grab. There are some nights we are so busy (most nights, really), that we are 1-2 hrs behind. This does not mean in any way that we don't know where the pts are, we just don't always have time to sit down with the clipboard and write on every pts page when you've got 10 of them to do. Ours are not so simple as a little checkmark, either. There are codes for location, activity, affect, mood, type of precaution, and then initials. By the time the tech gets done doing one round of these for 10 people, it's almost time for the next 15 min. set. How is she supposed to get anything done? We nurses help when we can, but it's generally a madhouse. On our other 2 units, we usually only have 2-3 pts on precautions, so we don't have this problem.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I have an opinion about 15 minute or 30 minutes checks. I think if you do them extremely regularly, like almost exactly Q15 or Q30, the patients will figure out when they won't be checked on. Someone who is determined to hurt him/herself can plan to do it at the time it's known there will be no check. I think it's much safer to check within the time frame, but not exactly Q15/Q30.

[medsurgrnco, BSN, RN]

I have an opinion about 15 minute or 30 minutes checks. I think if you do them extremely regularly, like almost exactly Q15 or Q30, the patients will figure out when they won't be checked on. Someone who is determined to hurt him/herself can plan to do it at the time it's known there will be no check. I think it's much safer to check within the time frame, but not exactly Q15/Q30.

Agree. When I was a MHW, I would vary the time I checked on pts but do it within the expected tiime frame for just that reason. But what I've seen since becoming a psych nurse, is that MHW do not even check on the pts every 15-30 min altho they document that they are. This, IMO, is a much more concerning issue as pts do recognize when no one is checking on them for extended periods of time!

[aloevera]

our 15 min. checks are a joke.....there are so many pts. going to this group and leaving the unit for another group, outside to smoke, in their rooms, with the dr., with the therapist, I see the techs behind in them and just filling them in.....they probably get checked q. hr. if lucky....not the techs fault, by any means, just too busy of a unit, too much for them to do and UNDERSTAFFED