Questions from shift...

[glovedgoddess]

Hello nurses!

Here are some more of my usual random questions...Thank ahead of time for your help it means a lot!

1) How do you obtain a CDiff/stool sample from a total care patient?? Sounds silly but...say if patient is unable to bridge, would it be appropriate to obtain the sample from a incontinence pad? What if the patient is not incontinent but is unable to bridge? So silly I know!

2) How much information is appropriate to tell to a patient and family? For example, pt with pancreatitis and daughter are asking about the patients bloodword that was taken today, they want to know if things are improving or getting worse. What am I allowed to tell them? this happened to me, I checked over the most recent bw and his lipase enzymes were at 600, compared to the previous day it was sitting around the same. I mentioned to the patient and daughter that things were looking similar to the day before and that the doctor would be able to tell them a bit more when they would see him the next day. These kind of situations have occurred before and I just have a hard time identifying what my scope of practice is when it comes to providing the patient with informaiton like this.

3) I had a patient that was quite unsteady on his feet the day before and yesterday he was really unsteady and could barely weightbear, he would put most of his weight on me when attempting to stand. As a nurse could I just start making him use a wheelchair because his risk of falling is too high? Or maybe just tell him to stay i bed? Or do I have to do a PT or OT consult of something?

Plenty of more silly questions coming your way!

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

1. stool is stool. You can get it from the pad, diaper, floor, bed, wherever gives you enough for your sample. Don't go dig in the toilet or anything like that :)

2. it depends on who's asking, and what it is. If it's about how labs are looking, be vague and let them know they're watching the labs. You could tell them that the MD's are gonna keep getting labs to see what the trends are before they say anything. Don't give false hope, don't give negative news..MD should address

3. It depends on why he's getting up. If it's to the bathroom, get him a BS commode instead. If he just wants to get up, have him dangle at the bedside or move to the chair in his room. Leave a note in the chart for PT/OT consult so they can work with them and get them walking. On my floor, it's part of our admission policy that each pt automatically gets a Wound care, PT/OT, and nutrition consult.