chapsam

Hi fellow nurses, I'm working on a best practice project at my hospital in a nursing program for new nurses. I've found a hole that needs plugging in terms of an easy to make med error. This is the scenario... We use an emar and everything has to be scanned (including the pt) before meds are given. So, the scheduled fluids are timed and you are supposed to scan them off when they show up as due. However, 99% of the time the bag has finished before it comes up on the mar or hours after it has come up. This usually works out ok because we just scan a new bag and hang it up behind the current bag and then just replace as needed. This usually works out fine but it can also lead to some errors. For instance, I got an order for a 1x bag of fluid. I did not see the one time so did not communicate that to the next nurse. She kept the bags going and so did I most of the next day. Another scenario is that the order gets d/c'd & the nurse doesn't catch it and bags just continue to infuse. It's pretty easy to miss both of those scenarios. No one got hurt in my scenario (or not too bad) and I've learned from it. But, I would like to help plug that hole because I think it's common given that fluids are stopped & started all the time (pt showers, goes to radiology, etc...) & never match up to the emar. Does anyone work in a hospital that has a plan in place for that scenario or perhaps you have a personal method that works that I could translate into a best practice. Thank you!

Hi, I'm a new nurse in an extended new nurse orientation. At the end of the orientation (6 months) we are expected to present a best practices idea to implement on our unit. It can be fairly simple (i.e. someone came up with the idea for labels for iv tubing that indicate what day of the week they need to be changed based on the day they were hung). I'm in intermediate care. Anyone have any innovative ideas of practices that were implemented on your floor? Thanks for sharing!

That's great! I'm sure you are very relieved. And, how great is that that you get to stay in Dallas.

I'm in too!

I also interviewed on Monday. I've been lurking here for awhile but thought I'd peep out to join the group waiting for our responses! Good luck everyone. I know everyone has shared their stats so here are mine...4.0 science, 3.65 overall, 94% Teas, no medical work experience but quite a bit of volunteer experience, lots of travel & extracurricular, experience with online classes. Fingers crossed but I'm prepared for whatever may come.