jegalink

Wow, that must have been a just-divorced, bitter, bored, overzealous JC inspector. Well I guess it goes back to your comment, "Not that we all don't do it." Good patient care comes first - before beaurocrats. Let em' ding. I'm taking care of my patient.

Thanks. I'm really interested in spurring discussion of the larger issue here as well - the trend (in my view) especially in the hospital setting toward following orders rather than carrying out the full scope of the nursing process.

If so, RNs should be able to give that order within the RN scope - without MD approval. This is not how its being implemented in my example. Again, there are many more examples out there.

Interesting - I never heard that one before. We do keep flushes locked in med carts rather than sitting out unattended, but carrying has not been discouraged for us. You sure that's JC and not your facility policy? I'd love to read the JC document on that one. Kinda humerous really - I wonder how the flush is supposed to make it from the Med room to the patient... float??

Solids of certain colors are required in our hospital for each role, so prints are out for me. However, I do agree that there needs to be some companies doing a lot mroe market research for male scrubs. Women have so many cut/trim/shape options compared to the standard v-neck BORING for men. Pockets or no pockets? Wow - what choices! I always thought a Kung-fu tunic style would be cool for a scrub top (complete with toggle buttons). Might even help deter some of the violent patients.

It's important for all of us to stay alert to the fact the confused patients can be capable of anything - and watch our position. I'm sure none of us had violent patients pictured in our minds when we signed up to become nurses, so it can be traumatic for sure. Yet there's more and more of it. The largest part of our population (boomer) is aging into the dementia years. This problem isn't going away any time soon. Add to that the fact that more and more of our population is on psych meds of one sort or another. Hard to tell where things will be in 10 years. This is one of those areas of need that will require more hands on deck in affected units to deal with it appropriately - lower patient ratios. We also need more sitters.

My son will sometimes actually dry heave while I'm talking.

I have serious concern about how willing RNs are in the hospital to shrink their scope of practice and be relegated more and more to merely following MD orders. Case in point: our hospital recently created a policy that Ensure drinks required MD order. We're talking food! If that's not firmly still in the RN scope, then what is?? I understand the need for MDs to define parameters for intake, calories, etc. But deciding whether to use a particular drink to accomplish those parameters should be an RN-level decision. What gets me is that so many coworkers were relieved that they didn't have to make the decision of whther or not to give a patient Ensure if they asked for it. They would much rather follow orders than to think critically about their patient's needs. They had no idea that this is actually a BAD step for nursing, not a good one. There are many more examples. What do we need to do in hospitals to RECLAIM RN scope of practice?

I don't like stuffed pockets, personally - but I DO like having what I need ON ME when I need it. I use what I like to call my "stealth" toolbelt - because you can't tell I'm wearing it when I'm walking down the hallway.

I use this ulility belt every shift to carry EXACTLY what I need - all hidden nicely under the hem of my scrub top. No big bulge of a pack or apron. Patients notice how organized I am compared to previous shifts - I've received a lot of positve patient comments.