mondk

Night Owl: yes, that was the tray thingie I was referring to. The only meds I preset up now are my narcs since I can't leave my cart to go back to the med room and get them between each res; we have a lot of res. that get them on sched. at 0600. I do start my passes at 0500 sometimes 0530 and pray nothing goes wrong so I can be done by 0630 so the next shift can have the carts and start their 0700 pass. The main thing I hate is giving pills in bed; it takes me forever to wake ppl up, then to wake up enough to swallow the pills without aspirating them. At our facility, breakfast is late, around 0800 so a majority of our res. don't get up until the day shift gets there at 0630. Sometimes I feel like the bosses don't understand that yes, you can get your meds passed within that hour and a half, provided nothing goes wrong, like sick ppl, falls, call-ins, etc. The thing is that most places don't allot time for stuff to go wrong and about 7 times out of 10 it does. I have sent more res. to the hosp. on my nights shift than any other shift. Does it seem this way to anyone else??

Actually, I was referring to the geriatric setting in a non-skilled long term care facility. I know in our state we used to be able to do this at one time as long as we had these little cardboard cards with the med names and res. names and dosages on them on this certain little tray specifically designed to hold several med cups and keep them from spilling. I know of an RN that I worked with a couple of years ago that preset all of his meds up, pills, not liquids, with this tray thingie and cards, and that was in a skilled facility. I just wondered; a couple of my co-workers had asked me and I was curious. Thanks!!!!!! :-)

Freddy: I used to be an MDS/CPC in a 60 bed facility with 12 Medicare beds as well. Our computer was ancient (Windows 3.1) so I handwrote all of our CP's. I only had 3 days to do all this plus have the meetings with the families etc. Needless to say, I worked like a dog!!! I not only careplanned RAPS but also addressed any other problems they might have exhibited, like threatening to hit wandering res. that came into their room, any unusual behaviors or habits they exhibited stuff like that. We even cp'ed one guy who only wanted coffee and toast for brkfst. I didn't get any deficiencies during that time but I was really overworked and overwhelmed sometimes. I had the complete cp on their charts within 14 days of admission for the non-Medicare residents and the 5 day MDS on the chart for the Medicare residents like on day 6 after collecting team signatures. I also had the complete cp by day 14 on the Medicare residents too. Hope this helps...mondk

Hey all. I'm an RN who works the night shift at a 60 bed LTC facility. Of course, I'm the only nurse there during those hours and have a 22 bed RCF to oversee as well. I don't have many 0600 meds, but that seems to be the worst time for my shift. Can't we legally preset meds as long as we have cards with the med names on them and dosages and resident's names??? Just wanted to know, mondk