saribeth

Latest Activity

1. Deep Suctioning: Should We Do It At End of Life?

   saribeth replied to tencat's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   never, never, never....these poor pts have been through enough already by the time they come to us. :grn: Good that you listened to your

2. Non-Hospice appropriate patients admitted or kept on Hospice

   saribeth replied to Mamanurse62's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   I know that the nurses that work for profit hospices are doing a wonderful job and doing it because they love what they do. In my little corner of the world our VNA is really losing so many referrals...

3. continuous care

   saribeth posted a topic in Hospice, Palliative

   Very curious about medicare's criteria for "continuous care." I was under the impression that it had to be a "skilled nursing" activity every 15 minutes. Could anyone clarify or explain what exactly...

4. frequency on RN visits

   saribeth replied to americanTrain's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   What about when a pt is actively dying???? Don't you visit daily???? At our VNA the visits are totally up to the nurse. For documenting frequency in the POC we put 1-5x weekly x13 + 3-4 for sx...

5. Taking care of ourselves

   saribeth replied to dalmos's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   I have "support meetings" every other month with the team. I play some calm music and we discuss difficult cases. Recently I have been doing some fun things...trivia questions, ice breaker type...

6. Low Census

   saribeth posted a topic in Hospice, Palliative

   Hi kids...just wondering if your hospice census is on the low side...our home care is low also...

7. Disposing of medications at time of death

   saribeth replied to RubyRN,CHPN's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   well get a load of what we do...our manager heard about this at a reginal meeting...plastic zip lock bags with kitty litter...dump the liquids, pills etc and patches (opened and folded in half) and...

8. What Diagnosis would you say this patient is?

   saribeth replied to CANRN's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   What about Failure to Thrive or Total Body System Failure???? I know Medicare doesn't love those but heck, it is what it

9. O2 safety

   saribeth replied to nrcnurse's topic in Hospice, Palliative

   I had investigated this a few years ago and the amount of petroleum in vaseline is very low compared to what it was years ago...so lather her up and make sure you have a fire extinguisher close...

10. Bone Pain

    saribeth replied to RNSUEIA's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    We have had really good results with Dexamethasone 4mg bid..it increases appetite and gives them a feeling of "well being" (oxymoron I know)! What about a fentanyl patch starting with 75-100 mcg and...

11. standing orders

    saribeth replied to hospiceheart's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    Upon admission we have the pts doc sign the SO...they are already signed by our med director. For our comfort pack SO, even though they have signed off on the morphine etc, we do get a new order if...

12. ALS info

    saribeth posted a topic in Hospice, Palliative

    Hi kids...From what I can gather death can come rather abruptly with ALS and at times does not follow the "typical" s/sx of dying...Is that accurate? Any insight would be most appreciative...thanks...

13. Discipline Frequencies

    saribeth replied to shrinky's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    This is how we write the orders: SN: 1-5x week and 3-4prn for sx management x13weeks MSW: 1-4xmo and 3-4 prn for distress Chaplain: same HHA: 2h 5x week x13 wks Volunteer: 1-5xmo and 3 prn hope that...

14. Do you attend funerals?

    saribeth replied to Rnmomajmj's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I do go to the funeral home if I am close to the pt and family (which usually happens) and I almost always write a note...I do it for me and I know the families appreciate it...professional boundries...

15. Paper or computer documentation???

    saribeth replied to andre's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    We use lap tops...the program is Clinical Novius but it truly is geared toward home care...they told us from the very beginning that it would not save time and boy were they right!!!!!!! I have a...