Robinr1958

Linda, Our hospital has been discussing attempting to become a magnet hospital. Currently, unit nurses are frequently floated out to med/surg and telemetry but med surg and telemetry nurses are never floated in to us...(major negative morale issue). What would make it different if we obtained Magnet status? Thanks, Robin

As an ICU nurse for more than 20 years, I have been witness to countless cases as heart-breaking as Terri's. I feel the pain of both sides of her family. I have discussed my wishes with not only my husband but also my daughter and the rest of my family and they know exactly how I feel. I believe that there are truly worse things than death. I cannot imagine wanting to continue to exist if I were probably permanently going to be unable to communicate my needs to my caregivers. I can't imagine not being able to communicate to someone that I needed to scratch an itch or push my hair out of my face if it is tickling me or adjust the position of one of my limbs when it becomes uncomfortable...and even worse than that...to not even be aware that I had those needs...especially if, in all likelihood, I would not ever be able to improve. If what happened to Terri had happened even 50 years ago, first of all, she would not be here at all as CPR as we know it wasn't developed until 1960. And truly adequate tube feeding formulas weren't begun to be very well developed until the early space program when alternate means of adequate nutrition were needed for the astronauts. Perhaps this is an example of what Albert Einstein meant when he said "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." I do believe that this case and the publicity it has earned is going to have a positive outcome...not necessarily for Terri's family...either side... but for everyone who will, because of this case, talk to their families about what their wishes are if they are in a similar situation and write a living will. Robin

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I have used the same tubing for multiple IVPB's in another facility but we always backflushed the mainline fluids to clear the previous med out of the tubing...Never had a problem with incompatibilities as the backflush cleared other meds out. We even used TKO Normal Saline if the patient didn't have routine fluids going (with approval of the MD's. I am hoping to find some official documentation supporting this practice as it seems to me that breaking the system fewer times has to be better...not to mention the cost effectiveness of using fewer tubings. thanks again, Robin

I'm in Northwest Louisiana now and it is where I grew up but I lived in Maryland in the Baltimore are for a while and worked at Johns-Hopkins for 5 years. I loved Maryland and wouldn't mind living there again. Robin

Hello All, The hospital I work at presently uses separate tubing for each IVPB. I have worked at other facilities that use one for all and feel that this practice probably is not only more cost effective but also decreases the infection risk as the system is broken less frequently. I am looking for some documentation (studies, other information) that supports this as my facility is fairly slow to change without documention that strongly supports the benefits. Please share any documentation you may have to help us out. Thanks, Robin