Nursing Policies & Procedures

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Hello!

I have an assignment to pick a nursing policy and give an argument on why it should be revised. My lack of clinical experience makes it hard for me to find something wrong with a hospital's procedure for something. Does anyone have any suggestions on policies & procedures from your workplace that you think needs revised? Or suggestions on what direction to take?

Thank you :)

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What is the policy. There is always for improvement.

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Room for improvement.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Here's an easy one - policy on visiting hours. Most organizations still have limited periods of time, especially in specialty areas despite an increasing amount of evidence that this is not the best thing for patients.

Another 'hot' issue is scheduling. There is a ton of evidence that fatigue makes workers unsafe after about 10 hours, but most organizations have adopted 12 hour shifts because they are popular and easier to schedule. Other industries have addressed this problem a long time ago (truck drivers, airline pilots, train engineers, etc). Most hospitals also do not try to regulate 'total hours' worked - so staff could be essentially working multiple jobs which makes them unsafe most of the time.... just sayin'

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Nurse to patient ratios. Mandatory vaccinations. All specialties (ie: RT, CNAs, PT) wearing scrubs. Long sleeves in the hospital allowed (research is showing they are a major cause of nosocomial infections). Performance evaluations based on patient feedback forms. The use of personality tests in making hiring/interviewing decisions.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

gosh, I am forever re-writing policies depending on new evidence. Anything with a formula in it is fair game (hyperglycemia protocol, anticoag protocol). Recently re-wrote post-cardiac cath protocol to change fluid from D5 to NS as D5 was creating blood sugar issues. Anesthesia has changed schedule for NPO as well. "After midnight" does not fit everyone and is not necessary all the time.

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Wow - thank you for the replies!

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