Patient Name bands

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 29, 2008

My pts wear name bands with a bar code. We have to "scan the pt" with a hand-held bar-code reader for everything. I feel like this kind of objectifies the pts.

I don't like it. It's weird.

Sometimes, I'll joke with them and say "Hey, you're on special today; two for one."

One double amputee joked back "You mean I'm half off?"

But, really, I just do not like the whole scanning the pt thing.

Little Panda RN, ASN, RN · Feb 29, 2008

One double amputee joked back "You mean I'm half off?"

:lol2: :yeah: Thats hilarious!

The_Wonderkid · Mar 20, 2008

No. My patients don't wear name bands, don't have photos taken of them and don't have tags with barcodes on them! We aren't a medical ward so why act like one? lol

Generally the best way to find out who someone is is to ask them! TBH I have worked in units where you know who everyone is anyway. Its just the way it works and if you don't you ask a colleague to tell you who they are.

I do find it fascinating how other places work and do things. Some of the ways strike me as very erm unique to say the least.

My question is why SHOULD a patient wear a name band? Shouldn't the staff know who every patient is on their ward anyway? How can you give an intervention or write notes if you don't know who you are talking to? Doesn't putting name bands on patients ensure that there is a patient/staff divide and cause a possible breakdown in communication as a result? I thought the main purpose of Mental Health Nursing was to build a therapeutic relationship with patients in which you can build on to achieve a set goal (getting the person better and out into the community).

In the UK (Acute Assessment/Admissions Mental Health Wards) staff wear plain clothes (smart casual) and name tags (ones which break off if pulled to stop injurious behaviours) and patients don't wear bands of any sort.

Mish56, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

All of the patients on my unit wear name bands, and allergy bands. They do tell us that at some point they too will have the pleasure of being "scanned"!-can't wait to do that to a highly paranoid and psychotic person!

The turnover of patients makes it a true safety issue. Have 3 days off and you have 50% new patients. One of my co-workers walked up to a patient and said "are you Joe Smith" he said yes, and proceeded to take the meds she handed him, and then said "never seen those pills before".....why do they say this AFTER they've swallowed them??? He was given Clozaril 600 mg., which is normally tapered up from 12.5-25mg/ day SLOWLY!! He was not prescribed Clozaril, and was not "Joe Smith". Needless to say he spent the day (and night) in the ER.

I always ask patients I don't know their date of birth, which is printed on my med summary.

And by the way, I also always wear MY name tag/ID badge.

here_kitty · May 8, 2008

The patients in my hospital wear ID bands, but often take them off or they are otherwise made illegible. We are supposed to check 2 forms of ID with the patient, but sometimes they are so psychotic, that they don't give the correct information, then I'm out of compliance by giving them meds without verification of who they are! What do you all do? I'm hoping that the next visit by the JC will be on a day when I am working with lucid patients!

RN2begin · May 9, 2008

No. My patients don't wear name bands, don't have photos taken of them and don't have tags with barcodes on them! We aren't a medical ward so why act like one? lol
Generally the best way to find out who someone is is to ask them! TBH I have worked in units where you know who everyone is anyway. Its just the way it works and if you don't you ask a colleague to tell you who they are.
I do find it fascinating how other places work and do things. Some of the ways strike me as very erm unique to say the least.
My question is why SHOULD a patient wear a name band? Shouldn't the staff know who every patient is on their ward anyway? How can you give an intervention or write notes if you don't know who you are talking to? Doesn't putting name bands on patients ensure that there is a patient/staff divide and cause a possible breakdown in communication as a result? I thought the main purpose of Mental Health Nursing was to build a therapeutic relationship with patients in which you can build on to achieve a set goal (getting the person better and out into the community).
In the UK (Acute Assessment/Admissions Mental Health Wards) staff wear plain clothes (smart casual) and name tags (ones which break off if pulled to stop injurious behaviours) and patients don't wear bands of any sort.

My hospital has a love/hate relationship with the "hospital" handle r/t benefit/deficit ratio respectively...while our staff wear business casual, our patients all wear name bands...which, after a recent incident, is probably essential to their protection. You see, we are so short staffed, that more often than not, the unit is staffed by float staff from another unit...who for the most part have no idea who the patient is...and sometimes even refuse to believe the patient, when they report to the staff who they are.

We recently had an "adverse outcome" on one of our long-term units. There were two patients with the same name. One of them had been put on a "med holiday" in an attempt to tease out some symptoms of autism so that he could be transferred to our neuro unit. Long story short...the float RN went to the latter patient's room (alone) and insisted that they the meds that she had set up, which included two antipsychotics at very heavy doses, as well as various other meds. The patient apparently told her that he was not said individual, but the RN would not relent and the individual finally took the meds...only to end up being sent to the ER via ambulance less than two hours later based on his behavior, which a mental health worker observed to be completely out of character for this individual...he had on a name tag...but because we hand write them (we are super-high tech) they often blur in the shower...

Just my :twocents: