Nurses, invent what you want.

[x4livin]

A few years ago, we were talking about how cool it would be to have a way to hook suction up to a patient's genitals and simply vacuum away the urine, and then someone invented the primafit. Years ago, we were talking about how the docs were prescribing Vicodin for arthritis pain, and how cool it would be if they would combine ibuprofen with the hydrocodone instead of acetaminophen because it would also act as an anti-inflammatory...and then someone invented Vicoprofin. What healthcare products have you "invented", only to see it come to fruition as an actual invention? What healthcare products/meds would you invent, if you had the means to produce it. Maybe we can get together and make some things happen and create some things to work smarter, not harder. I would like to see wireless tele, stick on forehead temp probes(wireless), a better way to check blood sugar in patient than relentlessly poking sore, fragile fingers, and a butt coating product that stayed on to stop further excoriation from loose stools. (I probably want much more, but that's all I can think of off hand.)

[Kitiger, RN]

I know people who put beer, wine, or vodka in the Ensure bottles.  ?

[Davey Do]

1 hour ago, Kitiger said:

I know people who put beer, wine, or vodka in the Ensure bottles.  ?

 

[soontoretire2020, BSN]

Two items. One, an antibacterial Foley cath that kills bacteria, so having an indwelling Foley doesn't mean getting a UTI. 

A doorway that mists a Lysol type product on everyone who walks through the door. So you enter a patient's room, you are clean. When you exit the room, you are clean. No carrying germs from room to room. Of course it has to be safe for your lungs, eyes, etc. 

On 7/11/2021 at 9:35 AM, Calm and collected said:

Back in my days as a charge nurse in LTC/ Medicare rehab unit, we were always pushing Ensure, milkshakes, etc on the poor little patients who just didn't want them. I always thought that if they put Ensure in beer bottle lookalike containers, some of those patients would think it was happy hour and drink up!!

 

Sadly, just a fantasy that never came to be.

How about vitamin infused, high protein beer?

[rn.brii, ADN, RN]

I would love to have a monitor at the nurses station that’s programmed to the pumps and shows all the IV meds/fluids in progress (similar to tele monitoring). That way you could keep an eye on what’s currently running, how much longer it has to run, & when it’s finished for all your patients in a centralized location. That way when it’s beeping, you’ll know whether you need to grab a new bag to replenish or just flush and lock the IV because whatever else was running is done. I feel it could save a lot of time instead of running in and out of rooms.

[Ioreth, ADN, RN]

I'd love to have a hospital room designed by nurses. My hospital is ancient and has been through many ineffective retrofits to maintain building code, but it is a horrible place to actually provide patient care.

The corridor would be wide enough for 3 beds across, 1 lane for bed/equipment storage, 1 lane for bed transport, and 1 lane for people walking. The door would be wider than the bed by at least 1 foot. The toilets would have curtains (have had more than 1 patient vagal on the toilet after telling me they're fine to be left alone) and be an alcove in the room so would be fully wheelchair and sara steady accessible with IV pump and CNA/RN. A light in this toilet alcove would be motion-sensitive so I don't have to take a hand off my unsteady patient to find a light switch. Hell just put a light switch next to the door just inside the room and I'd be happier.

EVERY room would have a tele monitor and dedicated wall-mounted vitals equipment (we monitor our fresh post-ops very closely then ease off in frequency after a while). I'd have a lockable cabinet in the room situated so you have in the room access or hall access (like next to the room door) so that pharmacy can load patient-specific meds without disturbing the patient and the RN can scan and open the cabinet from the inside to access meds or wound-care supplies, or whatever else needs to be in the room but not patient accessible.  Code blue and staff assist buttons would be in 3 places - toilet, head of bed, and by the door; they would have a flip up cover to prevent accidental pushes. O2 wall hookup next to bed and another O2 wall hookup by a convenient place for a patient chair. That patient chair would have armrests to aid standing for those that use walkers, a built-in chair alarm, built-in air circulation like the newer beds, and a timer to prevent too long sitting.

Because COVID will never go away, every room would be negative pressure. I'd put these rooms in pods of 2-4 with an antechamber for PPE donning/doffing; this antechamber would have sliding glass doors like some ICU pods, and the doors could be slid open entirely to expose the antechamber to the hall if not needed for infection control. Could put a computer in the antechamber for in the hall charting when not used for infection control. 

All of the cabinets would be open to the room, no drawers or doors to lose things in. The bedside table would have a USB outlet. A computer would be in the room, and it would have a wireless scanner. There would be a countertop convenient to the computer to prepare meds so we are not preparing meds over the keyboard. (Ever spilt IV antibiotics into a keyboard?) ALL IV poles would have an O2 tank holder. 

[Ioreth, ADN, RN]

Wireless blood sugar monitoring patches already exist. Why not make something like that for the hospital?

Anyone who is diabetic, just slap a patch and Tegaderm on the back of their arm. Since this is a pipe dream, I'd make this 24-hour monitoring and fully wireless. Just program it like you'd program an IV pump. It will automatically result blood sugar to lab results at the appropriate timing for insulin administration. Got someone on a renal/diabetic floor with an insulin drip that needs frequent titration? The results will pop up a high alert message on the patient's chart at regular intervals for titration.

Let's take that a step further and make patches for electrolytes and aPTT for heparin drips. All automatic and no need to poke the patient for labs any more than necessary. Also for those hospitals that use PIVO (hiss!) save your peripheral IVs for fluids and med administration rather than ruining them with blood draws.

**********
A dampness sensor in the bed. Nuff said.

Bonus! Make one that can be put inside a brief.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

Wow! That sounds like an amazing set up!! 

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

I would LOVE to not have to poke patients for stuff that they need so frequently drawn depending on the diagnosis. I felt so bad for insulin drip pts getting q1 hr finger sticks, and for people getting blood and needing so many CBCs, and for people on heparin drips getting so many aptts, and hyponatremia pts with so many BMPs. My hospital did get extended dwell long IVs the could be in for up to a month and that could have blood drawn from them, but they usually didn't last that long. They would draw blood for max a week, then still be good for infusions but no longer draw back blood. Still better than nothing! But a way to check labs without poking would be AWESOME!!

And love the multiple places to hook up O2. Instead of patients (and nurses) tripping over those tubing extensions! Tiny hallways and bathrooms are such a pain. All of these are such great ideas. Maybe you can be a nurse architect! That should be a thing for designing hospitals. 

[Ioreth, ADN, RN]

10 minutes ago, LibraNurse27 said:

I would LOVE to not have to poke patients for stuff that they need so frequently drawn depending on the diagnosis. I felt so bad for insulin drip pts getting q1 hr finger sticks, and for people getting blood and needing so many CBCs, and for people on heparin drips getting so many aptts, and hyponatremia pts with so many BMPs. My hospital did get extended dwell long IVs the could be in for up to a month and that could have blood drawn from them, but they usually didn't last that long. They would draw blood for max a week, then still be good for infusions but no longer draw back blood. Still better than nothing! But a way to check labs without poking would be AWESOME!!

We have PIVO in my hospital. The peripheral IVs have a tiny hub next to the skin in line with the catheter in the vein and we use a device to access through the peripheral IV to the vein to draw blood for labs. This is awesome in theory, but in practice it tends to ruin a lot of IVs, so the patient gets poked anyway.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

6 minutes ago, Ioreth said:

We have PIVO in my hospital. The peripheral IVs have a tiny hub next to the skin in line with the catheter in the vein and we use a device to access through the peripheral IV to the vein to draw blood for labs. This is awesome in theory, but in practice it tends to ruin a lot of IVs, so the patient gets poked anyway.

Interesting, I never heard of that. It does seem like drawing from IVs multiple times eventually causes the line to clot off or collapse/infiltrate. It would be cool if someone could invent point of care testing like the way we do blood sugar checks for other labs. Fingerstick is still better than constant lab draws. I know there is HemoCue for hemoglobin and one for INR. But currently it's all different machines. Anyone out there smart enough to make one machine that could check hemoglobin, INR, aPtt, BMP, with a finger stick? Get rich!

[Ioreth, ADN, RN]

1 minute ago, LibraNurse27 said:

Interesting, I never heard of that. It does seem like drawing from IVs multiple times eventually causes the line to clot off or collapse/infiltrate. It would be cool if someone could invent point of care testing like the way we do blood sugar checks for other labs. Fingerstick is still better than constant lab draws. I know there is HemoCue for hemoglobin and one for INR. But currently it's all different machines. Anyone out there smart enough to make one machine that could check hemoglobin, INR, aPtt, BMP, with a finger stick? Get rich!

There is such a thing! It is called an iSTAT and it is used in my hospital in ICU and ED. However it is pretty expensive and each test requires specialized cartridges which are also rather expensive. They don't let the rest of the hospital play with them.

[LibraNurse27, BSN, RN]

2 minutes ago, Ioreth said:

They don't let the rest of the hospital play with them.

LOL! Don't they know sharing is caring?