patient belongings

[nursejennie76]

Just a question about how this situation is handled in other ER's. We had our firt unit based practice council meeting, and we are going to have to start writing down the specific items patients come into the ER with and have them sign it before they leave the department. I see this as silly, and the number of things patients say are missing is far less then the amount of nursing time spent collecting this information from them. Just wanting some input so I can agree with or argue this new policy at our next meeting.

[mandasueRN]

Although I will be the first person to admit I want to say "That's not my job" when it comes to patient belongings, I must say you have to be very careful about this. At my hospital, if you are awake, alert and oriented you sign a waver saying that you understand you are responsible for your personal belongings while in the facility. If a patient comes in altered, like a trauma patient, we have a inventory form that we fill out along with our social services staff. We also chart it in our nurses notes. We are very specific about items, we chart exactly how much cash they had, credit cards, jewlery, etc. We chart it if their clothing was cut and thrown away. I will admit I am OCD about it. However, I have been burned in the past when I was simply doing my job and someone else down the line decided to steal the belongings of a DOA and pawn them. It was a horrible experience that involved having to talk with the local police department. Our facility and the nurses were called negligent on local news and radio stations. It was even on a national cable news network. I was embarrased to work there, because if someone found out I worked there they would say stuff like, "Were you the nurse that stole XYZ? Ha, Ha, Ha." I didn't find it very funny.

Sorry for the long vent, I just wanted to say while we may feel like this is not our responsiblity and we may hate dealing with it, we absolutely must be careful. In my case it wasn't my fault, some other sick person stole the belongings--he was eventually caught and charged with theft. But fingers were pointed at every person in that room that day. Be careful! You absolutely must have a department policy in writing about this that everyone follows to the letter--it's the only thing that will protect you.

[RedSox33RN]

Sorry you had to go through that, Mandasue. How awful for you and the others. Stealing from anyone is bad - the newly deceased is just horrendous though.

Every trauma I have been in we do the same thing - everything from cut clothes to what was in the pockets, etc.

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

Usually with admission only, however... I do triage, if someone comes in with a hurt arm or hand and I have them remove their ring, I always describe it and state that the patient kept it. Waaay back when I worked in CCU, had a patient say that I stole his dentures!! Like I'd want someone else's dentures, I have my own teeth by the way.