eimhear

I was working on an ENT ward and we had a patient admitted with severe vertigo, a newly qulified nurse was asked to give paracetamol suppositories, I entered the room to find a them sticking out of his ears. Another incident, I was standing in the nurse station after a ward round (alot of nurses and doctors in the station) when a first year student on her first placement ran into the ward and straight to the nurse manager 'Mr M is suffering from constipation, he has not had a motion for 3 days, I asked him what he takes at home and she said Semtex, with a very proud smile, followed by producing his chart 'will I get the Doctor to order it'? Everyone laughed and she just stood there not knowing- I would like to point out she is now a nurse manager and a very good one.

This is interesting reading, in Ireland there is only one level of nurse, RGN (Registered General Nurse) or Registered psychiatric nurse (RPN) etc... so we do all patient care, in ED, and ICU some staff cannulate and draw blood but the norm is doctors cannulate and draw blood, you can imagine a busy Saturday night one medical house officer for the hospital and you need a cannula, you could wait 2-3 hours. Scope of practice is a big issue but hospital policies do not support the practice and therefore cannulation and phleboomy courses are few and far between. I am really grateful for all your replies, Thanks.

Hi everyone, I hope you will be ale to provide me with a little information I work in Ireland and currently there is a debate re nurses (Registered) performing cannulations and phelebotomy. In Ireland this has traditionally been carried out by doctors, now hospitals are providing day courses to train nurses, it is not part of the pre registartion trainning. What are the practices in your country. I would appreciate any feedback.

I'm not sure this will help as its an Irish hospital, but we have infant wards (Under 12 months) - two general wards that accept both medical and surgical (infants are all nursed in single cubicles so infection not an issue) and one infant cardiac, we have a burns ward, renal ward, cardiac ward, PICU X 2, (cater for both infant and children),day ward, ortopaediacs, oncology, respiratory - so pretty much the same as a general hospital, one hospital I worked in was catholic founded and therefore all the units were called after saints e.g. St. Peter's, St. Annes etc..., the other after trees, oak ward, ash ward, I hope this is of some help