i just thought i would throw this out here, and thought it may get a few head shakes and giggles!
so here i was at work the other day as an agency nurse at a local hospital. i had my tubex with me which i carry around for injections when a very nice nurse kindly told me that because of infection control, those tubex are one use only (they are cleaned, not thrown away).
i thanked her very much for the info, and then grabbed the cbg machine..then thought??? ummmmm if a tubex is to be used once per room...then why do we use the same cbg machine for all rooms (hello direct blood on those)...or the vs machine? i giggled a bit. guess it all comes down to cost, washing tubex is easier than washing cbg machines..lol! (i clean my cbg machine with etoh wipes after each use by habit anyway....but still...lol!).
i mean...good rule..but kinda made me giggle a bit :chuckle
what other interesting rules do your facilites have that make you go hmmmmmm???
Don't you think many of the rules that hake you go HHHMMMMM are instituted by JCAHO.
JCAHO has one and only one job. TO BOLDLY CREATE AND RECREATE STANDARDS THAT THE INSTITUTION MUST ABIDE BY TO HANG A PLAQUE IN THE LOBBY. When they stop creating "silly nurse tricks", oh I mean standards, regardless of how impractical they are, they are out of a job. Now I am not JCAHO bashing. I am actually glad that someone has the unenviable job of being critical all the time, because there are some standards that are no-brainers. But some of the stuff they come up with is incredibly impractical.
I work LTC. We have a form to fill out on every resident on antibiotic therapy, required each shift. All you have to do is write a y or n in the block next to the resident's name for the duration of the course of antibiotics. {After you fill in the info at the end relating to name, med, dx, etc.} Now, if you work LTC, you know that lots of folks may be on abx, so while this is not a huge amount of paperwork, it is still uneccesary work added to each shifts pile. This is a rule because someone, somewhere, I don't know how long ago, had a resident on abx who had a significant adverse reaction to it and died because NOBODY noticed. I don't know about you all, but I keep a close eye on my residents who are ill enough to be on abx, and when they start acting very different, I notice! However, all three shifts missed this problem. For about a week, this person got worse and had increasing s/s of adverse reaction and no one thought anything of it. Not to be rude, but why punish the nurses who do their jobs by adding more gobbledy gook to do? That is time I could spend on resident care, thank you. Every one makes mistakes, I am by no means perfect and will never be. The only people who never make mistakes are babies and docs:roll . Any how, I guess it's just a case of mgmt covering the hind quarters again. Sorry for the rant:rolleyes: .
We have a list of on call spots every month because of our constant fluxuating census. Now, when we are on call and called in, we get time and a half. However, if we are not at all scheduled, not on call and out of the goodness of your heart, we come in to help, we only get straight pay. Now, what incentive do I have to leave my kids to come in on my day off and work?!? I think it is silly they will toss out all the money on the "scheduled" on call slots, but when they call one of us with a moments notice and we are willing to come in, there is no compensation, well besides our regular pay.
We are not allowed to have our own bottles of hand lotion!! The infection control nurse says it can cause a breadown in the durability of our gloves!!
How absurd!! We do not reuse the gloves!!!
It looks as if you have not been paying attention to infection control issues. The oils in typical hand lotions, including lanolin and aloe, basically any petrolium based product. break down the laytex while you are wearing it and compromises the barrier between you and the stuff you handling. Imagaine a colander of urine draining onto your hands! It is the same principle as water based sex lubricants when using condoms. Please tell me you are at least teaching your pts this very important aspect of diseae prevention!
Let me ask your opinion. JCAHO is now making unannounced visits and the upper mgmt is going nuts. Now I understand some of their rules and the reasoning and for the most part I agree but why do they insist that no drinks be at the desk??? Yeah, I might spill it or throw it in a doctor's face but is it really a patient care issue? It's a mystery to me! What do you think?
asher
Yuck!!!!! it is the transmission of germs!!!! The pts germs are in the air, if you wouldn't suck on a wound why would you want those germs in your drink?
Warning... going to get a little gross here. Why do we put absolutely everything contaminated with even the smallest drop of a blood in the bio hazard and then go into the bathroom, change our feminine pad (with more blood than the 4X4 had on it) and just dump that in the garbage!! Have never, never, never understood this.
Warning... going to get a little gross here. Why do we put absolutely everything contaminated with even the smallest drop of a blood in the bio hazard and then go into the bathroom, change our feminine pad (with more blood than the 4X4 had on it) and just dump that in the garbage!! Have never, never, never understood this.
The small cans that are in the stall may have the clear liners in them, but our housekeeping puts those in the red bag when they change them out.
Well they don't in my facility. And Hmmmmm... why should they (just as devils advocate). There are households all across America that are disposing of the very same product into the general landfills. So what makes our trash w/ only small dried amounts of blood/body fluids anymore "dangerous" and requiring special disposal techniques than what is going into landfills all across the world. Can't be that our "population" has scarier germs - because those same germs abound in the general public. I can definately see large amounts of wet, dripping blood/body fluids be disposed of in "red bags", but a 4X4 w/ a 1cm area of dried blood??? Just one of those rules that makes me go Hmmmm.
Yuck!!!!! it is the transmission of germs!!!! The pts germs are in the air, if you wouldn't suck on a wound why would you want those germs in your drink?
I'm talking about a coke in a cup with a lid sitting beside the computer where I chart, there are germs everywhere in the hospital environment, why would a microbe pick my coke to swin in? Besides, as my mother used to tell me, coke could dissolve a nail, surely it could take care of a pathogen!!!:chuckle
Seriously, I realize that it is for the safety of the staff but it does seem alittle over the top. If I keep it in the break room, a co-worker is sure to share with me any number of germs just by saying hello.
I'm talking about a coke in a cup with a lid sitting beside the computer where I chart, there are germs everywhere in the hospital environment, why would a microbe pick my coke to swin in? Besides, as my mother used to tell me, coke could dissolve a nail, surely it could take care of a pathogen!!!:chuckle
Seriously, I realize that it is for the safety of the staff but it does seem alittle over the top. If I keep it in the break room, a co-worker is sure to share with me any number of germs just by saying hello.
Just my thoughts
asher315
Agreed. If you are that worried about germs, you had better have a mask on at all times. You are breathing them in all day.
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GI Jackie
32 Posts
JCAHO has one and only one job. TO BOLDLY CREATE AND RECREATE STANDARDS THAT THE INSTITUTION MUST ABIDE BY TO HANG A PLAQUE IN THE LOBBY. When they stop creating "silly nurse tricks", oh I mean standards, regardless of how impractical they are, they are out of a job. Now I am not JCAHO bashing. I am actually glad that someone has the unenviable job of being critical all the time, because there are some standards that are no-brainers. But some of the stuff they come up with is incredibly impractical.