Curious about what my peers think about the nursing strikes in California and the recent pt death.
I am a striking nurse who was locked out of my hospital. I went on strike to keep nursing a career that attracts and keeps the best people. We are trained professionals who love our patients and love being nurses, but the corporate bosses were to treating us like worthless chattel. They presented a long list of takeaways and were unwilling to negotiate over any of it. It is a sad day when nonprofit hospitals start acting like for profit corporations who constantly threaten layoffs and takeaway benefits from nurses and patients while giving themselves fat raises. It felt powerful to unify and take a stand.
However, I am now seriously questioning my right to strike and if indeed I have placed my pts in danger. Oncology is too intense of a practice to view nurses as interchangable commodities. While a mistake could have been made by anyone at any time the reality is less mistakes are likely when nursing is practiced by a consistent team of experienced RN's. My heart goes out to the family of the pt as well as to the traveling RN who made the med error and I am just heartsick over it all.
ummm...not silly at all. I work in a unit where it is required to have every single med double checked by another RN. We do it all the time. A few extra seconds or a minute is all it requires to save somebody's life and prevent errors.
What kind of unit do you work on? Do you have studies that show having two RNs check every medication actually prevent medication errors? My understanding of most medication errors are that they are usually system errors not usually individual judgement errors. I haven't worked in a unit where having two RNs check every medication was feasible option nor do I agree it should be done in most units unless you are consistently working with critical doses (or giving blood) such as when you are giving medications to neonates or chemotherapy to patients.
wtbcrna: Do you actually think it's a bad idea to double check meds? I work in a unit with a population you mentioned in your post, but since I am technically a "scab" I don't want to say exactly where I work. Sometimes we catch nurses in math errors or timing errors when we double check meds. Or we find the doctor made an error. I think our system is great. I don't know of studies in particular, but I feel much safer double checking everything.
wtbcrna: Do you actually think it's a bad idea to double check meds? I work in a unit with a population you mentioned in your post, but since I am technically a "scab" I don't want to say exactly where I work. Sometimes we catch nurses in math errors or timing errors when we double check meds. Or we find the doctor made an error. I think our system is great. I don't know of studies in particular, but I feel much safer double checking everything.
I think it is unrealistic to sit at a med cart or in the med room and double check meds with another RN for every med pass. Nurses need to be able to think critically and ask for help when they need it. Part of growing into an experienced nurse is knowing when you need help. The worst kind of nurses are the ones that don't realize they need help.
Some of things that I think would help nurses make less mistakes is have to take more pharmacology and actually have drug books with the same information as the ones the providers are using.
Gosh no wonder we get no respect. If you can't calculate meds-then you should get someone to double check your medications. If you consistently make calc errors, then you need not be in the nursing profession. How sad. It is incomprehensible to double check everything you do. Especially when you work in units where you may be one of a few nurses and you work with support staff. Give me a break. You paralyze me with your overreaching ideas. Don't forget the pharmacy has taken away the job of admixing meds, even antibiotics. I agree most mistakes are systems failures. Look alike meds, sound alike meds, high risk meds. Mistakes are a human condition. I guess as a patient you would feel better with bots.
I guess we will be so dumbed down we'll have to ask whether we should use a regular bedpan or a fracture pan. I'm sorry, but you that are posting double checks on things should hopefully never be rule makers. Be careful what you ask for you just might get it--second guessing everything you do. Where do you stop?
I tell you what-let the patients bring in their own meds, give them like they are used to. Check their own blood sugars on their own meters. Being their own epi pens if they have an allergic reaction then they can Call the doctor themselves for questions and increases in dosages and just have the nurse document what they did. Is that better? That way the patient is in charge of their own well being and you can have them sign a waiver that the nurse is not responsible for their outcomes. Oh and by the way-the patient can teach the nurse about changing their dressings and show them how it's done properly, they can bring in their own portable AED and shock themselves when the machine reads a life threatening arrhythmia.
it doesn't matter if the hospital has a double check policy on meds. Nurses know the 5 rights of med administration. there are black box warning meds-heparin drip,chemo, ton,etc., where another nurse should be used to validate med. a nurse should not need a policy that tells her/him to check the 5 rights. and if a nurse is unsure if a med does require a second nurse to validate that is their responsibility to know the policy or at least ask. if you administer the med you are responsible. no one else.
I think I must work at the same hospital you do. I also crossed the picket line. I cannot for the life of me get my head around having a sympathy strike for a different union. In my opinion this was all politics. I am a nurse not a politician.
Just because your job is important and involves saving lives it dosen't mean you are not entitled to negtiate for a fair wage and benifits. Electritions go on strike- lives can be placed at risk. Ever see the results of a garbage collector strike?,- it looks like Europe during the black plague. I'm a nurse and I think that is a good thing to be, but when we start thinking of ourselves as to necessary to strike- the end of that logic is we are slaves to the system- undeserving of anything but subsistance wages, and not trained, valuable health care professionals. I feel a union makes us more a respected profession- otherwise nursing is a "calling" and we may as well turn it back over to the "Sisters of Mercy" or whatever religious service group wants to do it for a nicer spot in Heaven.
I am having a hard time believing that ALL medications are checked three times. That is absurd. So a tylenol is checked off by 2 or three other nurses? If you do the 5 rights, you will not make a mistake. The only meds we double check is insulin, heparin, starting a pca, and tpn. I can actually see mistakes made if one has to find 2-3 people to re-check. Where are these hospitals? Do you double or tripple check the IV solution bag? How about the antibiotic bags? And what about the tray of food delivered?
what i meant was that i triple check my meds with myself before administering them and use another nurse for the black box warning meds that i mentioned. . lol, no i don't check with another nurse before giving tylenol.
Just because your job is important and involves saving lives it dosen't mean you are not entitled to negtiate for a fair wage and benifits. Electritions go on strike- lives can be placed at risk. Ever see the results of a garbage collector strike?,- it looks like Europe during the black plague. I'm a nurse and I think that is a good thing to be, but when we start thinking of ourselves as to necessary to strike- the end of that logic is we are slaves to the system- undeserving of anything but subsistance wages, and not trained, valuable health care professionals. I feel a union makes us more a respected profession- otherwise nursing is a "calling" and we may as well turn it back over to the "Sisters of Mercy" or whatever religious service group wants to do it for a nicer spot in Heaven.
SOME NURSES WERE FORCED into a "sympathy strike" for another union that wasn't even a nurse's union. Did you not read my previous post about how this secondary strike didn't even involve RN's at a particular hospital? We already have excellent wages and a new contract without takeaways until 2014.
wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA
5,128 Posts
What kind of unit do you work on? Do you have studies that show having two RNs check every medication actually prevent medication errors? My understanding of most medication errors are that they are usually system errors not usually individual judgement errors. I haven't worked in a unit where having two RNs check every medication was feasible option nor do I agree it should be done in most units unless you are consistently working with critical doses (or giving blood) such as when you are giving medications to neonates or chemotherapy to patients.