Name a stupid policy/idea your facility thought would fly

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · May 12, 2012

Funkytown, Paradise City, Suffragette City, Margaritaville...:)

HAHAHAHA!!! Love it!!

Perhaps one's hometown Chamber of Commerce will get on board, and we can hand out brochures with our admission packets!! Our own personal visitor's service!! :yelclap:

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

Why hometowns?:icon_roll

In places like FL, where there many "snowbirds" and "immigrants from the North" along with seasonal travel staff, restaurants and other service industries have this practice. I suppose it is to make for conversation.However, an epic fail in hospitals. Because w/many snowbirds (which many are "older" and less culturally tolerant, you will get the ones that refuse foreign nurses/travelers, those that demand the northern one (because those schools are better), or request the Asian nurse " because they treat their men better",etc.(reminder of why I WILL NEVER work in WPB FL ever again - not enough money on this planet)

PennyWise · May 12, 2012

My work has only my cell phone. So, I just turn it off. No problem.

This is exactly how I deal with it. When I am sleeping, my phone is on silent mode and stays in the living room, which is so far from my bedroom that I would not hear it even if it wasn't on silent mode.

Then I got a smart phone and took full advantage of its features. Any number my employer can call me from is permanently set to "vibrate only". To get my phone to ring, someone would have to use their personal cell or something.

I used to read posts about people taking measures such as these and think "Gee, a little assertiveness goes a long way. Just say no." Upon further review though, IDK if picking up the phone and inviting confrontation is the best policy.

I always thought management would appreciate the honesty with me picking up and informing them I could not come in. After awhile though, I realized those who relied on means that I considered passive aggressive had a better time of it. It was almost as if management resented me for saying no. They seem to prefer being ignored. So..........they got it.

We all float down here.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · May 12, 2012

I also recall being told once that, if a patient vomited on the floor, the nurses had to clean it up before housekeeping would come and mop the floor.

I cannot think of a time when a patient vomited and I just left it there without cleaning it up. Ever.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

Just recently we were told we have to wear gloves and a mask to replace a bag of IV fluids. They finally realized that was stupid, but are still requiring it if the fluids are going into a central line.
How much compliance you think they're getting with that?

We do this as part of our central line infection prevention policy. Any time we are opening the system (changing lines, changing caps/stop-cocks, removing a cap, etc) we wear a mask and sterile gloves. Any time we are handling the line or access it (giving a med through a stop-cock) we wear clean gloves. We also clean any area that we access with chlorahexidine swabs before opening/accessing.

We've ben central line infection free for over two years, and we have great compliance with our policies.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

Houskeepers drawing blood...**Shudder** That is the grossest most unsanitarty thing I can think of. Imagine a housekeeper cleaning a toilet of a patient with c-diff or MRSA and then moving on to draw blood on the next patient...yuck!

It's not that gross if you follow hand hygiene and wear gloves. I mean seriously, I clean the butt of a patient with c-diff, drop an NG on the patient with MRSA, and then go draw blood on my next patient. Nobody bats and eye.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 12, 2012

Not to top the OP.

The time - the late 1990's. The place, a large hospital in central FL - an area where unions are generally disliked. Very few union facilities in the entire state/region.

Said hospital gets rid of the old "team nursing", with it's phlebotomists, PICC team and other staff and institutes "pods" with a much ballyhoed ratio of an RN, an LPN and a tech per pod of 7-8 pts - the staff does their own monitors, EKGs, phlebotomy. Sounds great, RIGGGHTT!

Said hospital knows full well that the pt census often doubles in Winter, and hired staff during that time. Logic would dictate that if it is close to double in Winter, that it will substantial drop in Summer. Obviously management did not conceive of this logic. Thus, mass layoffs/low census hit in the summer. Plus, the facility overestimated the savings from eliminating specialty teams, and underestimated cost of staff. So then ratios creep back to an Rn or and LPN for 7-8 pts and a tech for 10-14 pts, pretty similar to or worse than the previous ratios. But did any of the ancillary staff get returned?

Why, of course not.

But they went further and one step too far.

You see, during the Winter rush, they run staff ragged, with the "you need to DC this pt ASAP, we are giving you a "hall bed pt - ye, they had those pts in a bed in the hall, waiting for a room - and added on your assignment", rush rush, you'll just have to delay lunch, just this once, and then later "we can't cover your lunch", and "your tech has to float for two hours to another floor" and "If you clock out more than 7 minutes over, don't catch lights during report, don't assist MDs during reports, etc - you get written up".....the only time nurses could chart was as the rooms were being cleaned and turned over for the next pt.

So....guess.....

THEY DECIDED THAT NURSING SHOULD CLEAN THE ROOMS AND THAT THEY WOULD GET RID OF MOST OF HOUSEKEEPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course they presented it as the skelton crew would do most "routine" cleaning, and that nursing would only pick up if they were "overloaded"......which we knew that they virtually ALWAYS overloaded.

Yes, they wanted the onco nurses, the trauma nurses, all the nurses to scrub toilets and decon contaminated rooms, between hanging chemo, blood products, changing central line dressings, etc......only when we are REALLY busy, you understand.

For the first time in history, a hospital in that area became union.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · May 12, 2012

The CEO just put out a memo that he wants to put hometowns on all RN badges.

Considering how natives in my area react to some transplants, especially transplants from cities, I don't think that would work for me.

tokmom, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

In places like FL, where there many "snowbirds" and "immigrants from the North" along with seasonal travel staff, restaurants and other service industries have this practice. I suppose it is to make for conversation.However, an epic fail in hospitals. Because w/many snowbirds (which many are "older" and less culturally tolerant, you will get the ones that refuse foreign nurses/travelers, those that demand the northern one (because those schools are better), or request the Asian nurse " because they treat their men better",etc.(reminder of why I WILL NEVER work in WPB FL ever again - not enough money on this planet)

Wow.. I had no clue.

Guest372004 · May 13, 2012

Carol, this is why you need to work at union hospital only. Yes, my job is crazy most of the time but........what you say is absolutely nuts. Maybe management needs to be the housekeepers?

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

This was a previous job, which even with a union continued to have terrible conditions.

I still prefer my nonunion positions to the union ones, but then, the better positions were always out of FL so now I live and work comfortably in another state.

floridanurse1983 · May 15, 2012

Wow.. I had no clue.

Welcome to the Sunshine State!!!! It blows down here.