Please stop! Little things that are just bad practice.

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Little things that are just bad practice.

Like looping IV tubing back into itself (against our policy, and they went to great lengths to hand out caps to carry in pockets). And not even cleaning off the port you looped it into!

Disconnecting a running IV to take a pt to the bathroom.. and just leaving the bare end hanging from the pole. Don't interrupt IVFs ! Take the blinking pump with you!

What are yours?

Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.
That's fine, but realize it's not policy everywhere.

I'm sure all policies on continuous and intermittent tubing changes vary from state to state (although I am sure they are all pretty close) - but you can't really argue that once you disconnect a patient from said tubing, that the line is no longer "continuous". :lol: It's just not. You have opened the line, stopped the infusion, therefore making it in intermittent. And let's be honest, if we are taking a patient on and off fluids, it's usually not just a one time thing. It's multiple times. I'd probably be ok with the "crap, I started this line and the patient has a shirt he wants to change" quick flip, but the on-off-on-off-on-off is ridiculous. And it happens ALL. THE. TIME. where I work.

And don't get me started with intermittent tubing. It's due to be changed Q24 and I will come on and see lines either 1) not labeled or 2) labeled three or four days prior!

It does my head in.

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Picking the nasal cannula up off the floor and putting it in the pt's nose without wiping it off first.

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Our toilet paper dispensers are locked, and they lock up the toilet paper so nurses can't get to it. To make matters worse, we don't have 24 hr housekeeping, so the day and evening shift aids need to steel and stash toilet paper incase we run out at night, then we can give them a new roll to lay on top of the dispenser. Many a time I've told patients they need to get by with barrier wipes and tissues until morning.

Apparently we can be trusted to handle controlled substances, but not to handle new rolls of toilet paper....

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Or programming a new 1L bag as "900" ml's, so it is alarming empty when there's another 150 ml's in there. Those bags are overfilled by over 50 ml's. I program my 1L bags for 1050ml.

I think sometimes we do that so we will remember to grab a new bag and have it ready so the tubing doesn't run dry and you end up having to flush out your line instead of just hanging a new bag.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I'm sure all policies on continuous and intermittent tubing changes vary from state to state (although I am sure they are all pretty close) - but you can't really argue that once you disconnect a patient from said tubing, that the line is no longer "continuous". :lol: It's just not. You have opened the line, stopped the infusion, therefore making it in intermittent. And let's be honest, if we are taking a patient on and off fluids, it's usually not just a one time thing. It's multiple times. I'd probably be ok with the "crap, I started this line and the patient has a shirt he wants to change" quick flip, but the on-off-on-off-on-off is ridiculous. And it happens ALL. THE. TIME. where I work.

And don't get me started with intermittent tubing. It's due to be changed Q24 and I will come on and see lines either 1) not labeled or 2) labeled three or four days prior!

It does my head in.

There aren't state based policies on this. Many places do not change tubing q24 just because it's been disconnected because there is no evidence to support this practice and the related evidence suggests this does more harm than good.

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At my facility intermittent tubing is changed every 4 days along with continuous tubing, this was recently changed from daily. Nothing in our policy states anything about the amount of times you connect/disconnect the tubing from the patient. Unfortunately not all of our pumps are attached to rolling polls, some are attached to the beds so in order for our patient to be able to ambulate anywhere they have to be disconnected.

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Specializes in pediatrics, occupational health.
I think sometimes we do that so we will remember to grab a new bag and have it ready so the tubing doesn't run dry and you end up having to flush out your line instead of just hanging a new bag.

I never put the full amount of the bag of IVF hanging. I will always put 50 - 100 mL left (depending on my rate) so that I can get a new bag and not run out. I don't want to be caught in an emergency situation with this patient and run out...but mostly because I HATE to re-prime my lines.

My biggest pet peeve is when the manager changes the schedule and does not let anyone know!!!

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Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

... gossiping

... complaining about who is going to take this admission

... making patients feel they're inconveniencing you

... interrupting me while I'm passing meds or teaching a patient

... leave me nasty, crusty IVs to clean and restart

... using all the syringes in the med room and then unhelpfully leaving the empty box on the container to signal to everyone that we're out

Oh jeez, i got confused, I thought this was the old "things you wish you could tell your co-workers" thread! :roflmao:

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Specializes in Gerontology.
I never put the full amount of the bag of IVF hanging. I will always put 50 - 100 mL left (depending on my rate) so that I can get a new bag and not run out. I don't want to be caught in an emergency situation with this patient and run out...but mostly because I HATE to re-prime my lines.!

exactly! I always put less TBA than there is in the bag. It gives me a safety margin. And that way, I never get air in the line

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Apparently we can be trusted to handle controlled substances, but not to handle new rolls of toilet paper....

I can see it all now: toilet paper count at shift change! :roflmao: More 'paper-work"!

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Probably the most annoying practice I see done often at my current hospital is running IV K as a piggy back through an IV (as opposed to a central line of some sort).

Until I started working here I hadn't seen anyone run it like that in probably 15 years. It is of course accompanied by frequient complaints of pain and discomfort from the patients.

I am working on a official change in practice but it can be a long hard slog.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

Someone in the ER tying the blue vent on the Salem Sump in a knot. I have seen this in a couple of facilities. I never have time to talk to the ER nurse privately about this.

The blue tail is an air vent that needs to be sumped with air every four hours.

If gastric contents are coming out the air vent flush the clear tube with water to unclog and prime it and the flush the blue air vent with air.

If the blue and white anti reflux valve is clogged up, it's no good, throw it away and get a new one - or just wrap the tube in a blue pad .

Other than that my ER coworkers the best!

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