residents and phone use

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Do any of your facilities have policies in place regarding assisting handicapped residents with phone use? Thanks

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

No policy, but we just got a cordless phone for them to use since not all of our rooms have telephones in them( the residents must pay the phone company for the service). Only one problem with this..well a few. The phone doesn't have a long range so the rooms at the end of the hall can't get service, the phone has spotty service even close to the desk and third..we don't have an infection control policy attached to the phone usage.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

We,too,have a portable phone which we let the residents use. Our building is in the middle of nowhere so we get NO cell phone reception. I don't think infection control is that big a deal. Just wipe the phone down with whatever you use to clean the phones at the nurses' station.

[egglady, LPN]

We have had some families request that gramma call only once a day or something. Had a problem a while back where one lady was calling her daughter several times per hour. We have phones at the end of each hall for residents, and also a cordless they can use.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

What type of Policy are you looking for? We don't have one in place it is just one of those resident rights. ARe you looking for how to prevent them from making repetative calls or how to provide access to phones?

As far as the infection control...I just threw that tidbit out there. I work the off shift so our access to cleaning supplies is limited (housekeeping leaves at 3).

What kills me is that we have pts in isolation..droplet, contact etc and then we had an HIV pt that would pick her nose until it bled and that phone would go in and out of that room....and I would wonder....Who is wiping that phone down with what?

[ktwlpn, LPN]

What type of Policy are you looking for? ?

Specifically anything regarding actually assisting a resident with physical limitations-what do you do for resident's who are unable to hold,dial,charge the phones? Do you do it for them?

I can see where this could get to be a problem....

[facetiousgoddess]

Totally off topic here guys...

but this just kinda kills me......

that we need a policy to help residents use the phone

i smell survey...

would be tempted to write

Phone Usage/Assistance for Impaired Residents

1. Pick up phone.

2. Dial requested number.

3. Hand phone to resident.

Post Phone Usage

1. Hang phone up.

2. Assist resident to location of choice.

sigh

Be Well

Tres

slightly cranky tres this evening if truth be told.....

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Totally off topic here guys...

but this just kinda kills me......

that we need a policy to help residents use the phone

.....

Consider this-I'm holding the phone for a resident while your demented mother falls and breaks her hip... We are "the county poor house" It's an old building-2 to 4 residents in each room.No phones.No cable TV. Residents are told they can have a cell but we will not be responsible for it and they must be able to take care of it.We are not to touch them.There are pay phones on each unit that families and friends are encouraged to use to contact their loved ones. I was wondering how other facilites handle this.In my experience in LTC you need a policy or a protocol for EVERYTHING.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I worked in a place once that had a 2 page policy for how to give someone a glass of water. It would have been funny except if it's your policy, the surveyors can hold you to every little detail.

[facetiousgoddess]

Exactly my point ktwlpn and CCM.......its just that at times as a floor nurse every time a new P&P comes down the pike.....I grown inwardly because there is always that realization that we wouldn't have/need a new P & P if something hadn't gone wrong with an action/task that would appear to be rudimentary and simple.......

For some unaccountable reason this always saddens me greatly.

I think it leads back to the majority of staff really trying to do their best by our residents and yet somehow in the eyes of others we often fall short in our endeavors.

So consequently we end up with a P & P akin to the one CCM described.

Which to me is downright insulting. Please understand I don't mean this in an aggressive or angry way. Just saddens me.

Take Care Ya'll

Tres

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

One good thing about being 'the boss' is the ability to change things for the better. The facility I work for now has little to no corporate oversight so I can, in the words of my ED, basically do what I want! I've only been there a month but have already started revamping age old procedures and policies that do nothing to improve patient care but only manage to make nurses easy targets for surveyors.

At my last facility, at least a quarter of the residents were on I&O with no clinical reason. We changed our policy and had it written that only residents on fluid restriction had to be on I&O. When the surveyor came in one day and asked why we didn't have an I&O recorded on a patient on tube feeding, I told her that the nurses charted the amount given on the MAR;the resident had no s/s of dehydration or fluid overload, and the CNA's charted whether or not the resident voided every shift. She told me it was fine as long as that was the policy.

We all need to be a bit more realistic when we write P&Ps.