2 Nurse Skin ✔ q Shift ❓

[Emergent]

I was talking to a gal who told me that the latest and greatest at her hospital is that 2 nurses have to document a head to toe skin check on every single patient,  every shift, no matter what their risk factors. Real awkward on a 14 year old, ambulatory pediatric patient. Every crack and crevice, she said.

Sounds like more regulatory and desk jockey overkill to me. What happened to nursing judgment and preserving patient dignity? I would flatly refuse if they tried that on me.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

JBMmom said:

That's crazy. We have a two RN skin check on admission and let's face it, on busy days/nights we all have our go-to friend that we say "hey I'm charting you as the 2 person check on my admission, okay?"

^^^ This is what we do.  On the walkie talkie 40 year old with a gall bladder attack it's always "hey I'm putting you down as the 2nd RN check" and move on.

But only on admission do we need two RN skin checks.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

KathyDay said:

What happened to good old fashioned patient hygiene?  

Went away with 6:1 ratios, many times without a tech or a tech with 16:1 ratio.  Sad but true.