IRISHBREAD

i forgot to say we don't use buritrols for meds. we use syringe pumps attached closer to the iv site. it takes 25 cc to get from the buritrol to the patient and if you are giving it at a rate of 25 cc to a little one it can take up to 2 hours for the patient to receive an antibiotic. also if you are giving gent or vancomycin for which you are doing levels, you need to know exactly when you started infusing and the med ended to get correct levels.

i have always used buritrols on kids especially before we had pumps so that we didn't over hydrate little ones. now our unit uses them on kids under 5 yrs of age and only put in 2 hours worth of fluid. it forces you to go back every 2 hours miminum to check the iv site if you get too busy to check every hour and i have followed some nurses who have not checked a site for a long time and seen some bad infiltrates!!! plus some times the kids will dislodge the cath and leak the fluids all over the bed when they are sleeping. many of the staff complain about having to use them but to me (i have a lot of grey hair moments) it reminds me to check a site on a child especially when they are sleeping.

i like RESPECT!!!! which we don't get and Take This Job and Shove It! when the supervisor want more and more and more. DAY-O DAAAY-O at the end of the nit and when it hits bottom i sing the Barney Song (God forgive me) at that point i have regressed to a child and need to get away. my co-workers know to stay away when i sing that!!!!

i don't know what you men by ratting out. i agree if you see a fellow nurse doing something to harm a patient then you need to go to that nurse and confront her. if she continues to place the patients in harms way then it is your duty to go to the manager. if only md's would do the same when they see their fellow physicians make big mistakes instead of covering up for them--maybe we wouldn't have so many scary doc to watch out for--for our patients' sake.

just a postscript--i have written myself up so i don't think it's such a big deal--one day i had to write up a med error that someone else made and she really came down on me! go figure!

an incident report is just that--something that happens and you happen to be the one who discovers it. if i make a mistake then i write it up. it's to protect the patient.