Pill crusher Evidence Based Nursing

[jbluehorseh]

Hi all

I am looking for some EBN studied / articles in regards to best type of pill crushers, the hospital where I work uses these cheap hand held ones, these do not get cleaned, which leads to a high risk of cross contamination. Are there any Cal-osha standards or JACO

[Sarah010101]

our pill crushers require you to put your pill in a baggie and crush...

[April, RN, BSN, RN]

We use metal mortar and pestle type pill crushers. I usually use an alcohol wipe to clean it when I'm done. Sometimes I just crush the pill while it's still in the package.

[flashpoint]

We use a Silent Knight, which has little pouches that you crush pills in. It works well for larger pills but when you have small ones...I put the tiny ones between two cups and smoosh it with a highlighter (kind of like you would with a mortar and pestle).

I do the two cup and highlighter thing when I want the pills crushed finer than the Silent Knight will crush them...we have a lot of resdents that spit out any little bits that aren't crushed very fine.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I tend to put the pill in a paper cup, then put a paper cup over the pill before I crush.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

We use a hammer! Works great, as long as the pill is still in the plastic (unit dose) it stays clean. We just had to hide it while JHACO & the magnet comm. came around.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

We go really high tech. We have a couple of rocks. We keep the pills in their unit dose packages and crush them with the rock. For narcotics that aren't in unit dose, we put them in a paper towel and crust that way.

No cleaning of equipment, no mixing of meds. And cheap!

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

quite, and clean...google the Silent Knight. We used to use a noisy and messy metal thing..The Silent Knight uses little plastic sleeves and really is quiet and easy to clean.

[BluegrassRN]

Re the Silent Knight: The sharp edges of the pills do puncture the little baggies during the crushing process. We're expecting our Joint inspection at any time, and recently it was brought to our attention that we need to be cleaning the Silent Knight pill crusher after every use, to prevent cross contamination and potential allergic reactions.

[Midwest4me]

we go really high tech. we have a couple of rocks. we keep the pills in their unit dose packages and crush them with the rock. for narcotics that aren't in unit dose, we put them in a paper towel and crust that way.

no cleaning of equipment, no mixing of meds. and cheap!

rocks? are you serious? i have to smile at that.....what do the surveyors say about using rocks? are you in a hospital or ltc?

[jbluehorseh]

thanks for the information ,but i was looking for safety and standard information

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

rocks? are you serious? i have to smile at that.....what do the surveyors say about using rocks? are you in a hospital or ltc?

canadian - no surveyors! hospital based. other units liked our solution so much that they do it too now! we do have an "real" pill crusher too, but no one uses it because the rocks are so much easier!