FleaRN

At my previous place of employment we were instructed we could no longer use the shorter PRN form for PRN or second/third routine scheduled visits starting about October or November last year. We were told that this was due to changes in Medicare requirements. I have started at a new hospice last week and they are still using the short forms for PRN and LVN(focused assessments). I am struggling to find any sort of information online on this topic. Has anyone else run up against this in the last 6 months or so? And if so, do you know how/where I would find some for-reals confirmation?

I love actually building relationships with patients and family and knowing that I make a real difference to their life and experience. I sometimes grow weary of the cumulative grief that is present in hospice. I find going to funerals helps me to find closure and allows my grief to be alleviated.

The charting software my company uses just has a scale of mild to severe for these symptoms which I find utterly useless due to its subjectivity. When charting SOB, I'll chart how many words the patient can speak in one breath as a way to illustrate the severity of the symptom. 3-word dyspnea being worse than 5 word, etc. If patient is non-verbal, you're dependent upon respiratory rate and "character" description of the patient's respirations. We are limited by our EMR systems, but we always have space to draw the picture in our narratives.