colddeadpeople

10 minutes every hour only invites trouble. Every hour, you're asking for it. Every 4 hours makes it more manageable. But even then, and you are correct, it must be backed up by management with some "help" to enforce it. We all lose credibility when we aren't backed up.

Go to lunch.

IV pumps that fail during transport. MOST of them will hold a charge, but they're frequently failing with that continuous whine and can't be reused. Telephones in disrepair. Some of them have been thrown away and not replaced. Again and again, WHEN are you going to get rid of the stupid computer charting system? The initial charting on two patients burns a half hour out of your mornings WITHOUT interruptions, and that's WITH computer lag-times. We tolerate this. And visitors are a real problem. And the NEW computer system isn't a fix. Or do you not know that? Again, too many visitors with their whims and demands. Pharmacy short-staffed: Stat meds must be hand carried. Delivering meds takes a tech off of order entry and pharmacy chores. Stat meds occur ALL of the time. Frequently, a nurse must leave the unit and go get stat meds themselves. STAT meds usually require the same nurse to give them. They are stat so it must be important, but that nurse must LEAVE to go get the stat meds. AND this leads to: Sedation drips. Diprivan is safe but being phased out by some inane logic foisted upon the populace by a few stupid physicians actions. (GI facilities with re-used syringes and bottles, cardiologist Murray killing a superstar, et. al.) We can grab a diprivan out of the machine at any time. Versed, Ativan, Fentanyl drips are utlized in it's place but must be mixed and delivered by pharmacy. This is a huge increase in manpower and creates a stupid safety issue with an inability to quickly sedate agitated patients facing dangerous self extubation. This also creates a labour intensive (and ER doc expensive) reintubation with it's associated recovery periods. Don't tell me this doesn't occur. Taking LABS to the lab. This is completely crazy. A nurse must HAND CARRY labs to the lab. There are a FEW lab techs that will take and deliver labs to the lab for us, but it also is dependent upon where they are heading throughout the hospital. Night shift says the lab does it all the time for them. Day shift must be special. We try to staff for patients (and frequently can't do it safely) but we don't staff for visitors. In other words, we're already ******, but here comes the visitors. Many of them are nice and helpful. I'm sorry, but most of them are not. ****** off visitors means lower scores, doesn't it? Visiting hours two times a day for 15 minutes a day shows that we have control of the situation and, believe it or not, nurses can PLAN their day and keep their patients safer. You tell them 15 minutes because this always turns into 30 minutes with getting them all in and out. With scheduled visiting hours we PLAN for the visitors, we schedule the ****-wipes, everything looks PEACHY when they come in, we are READY for the stupid questions, we answer them and we ALL kick them ALL out at the SAME TIME, no matter what, with SECURITY (what a concept, huh) always there to prod them out. The ICU critical care patients get to do what they are SUPPOSED TO DO, rest and sleep, and the hospital scores improve. There are less infection control issues too, with fewer people transferring infections, with fewer supplies being wiped out by repetitive visitors coming in every 20 minutes all day. THINK of the MONEY to be SAVED. Employees have LESS STRESS. EVERYTHING is BETTER with FEWER VISITORS.