Share Policies That Have Not Saved One Life

[Emergent]

(But may have contributed to a few deaths by sucking time and energy from us)

I'll name a few:

1) Care Plans

2) Charting pain scales before and after meds

3) Laminating paper bulletins 

[MunoRN, RN]

3 hours ago, Daisy4RN said:

I obviously know that vaccines save lives and also, because I can read, what the title of the thread is. But thank you Capt Obvious for, well, pointing out the obvious.  What my post was intending, which also IMO, should have been obvious, was to poke a little fun and point out that RNs, who are already running around like chickens with their heads chopped off don't need to give vaccines.

And, I would most definitely have a problem giving a vaccine to a pt who already had one, Just sayin.

The screening requires that an order be placed per medical standing order, which pharmacy techs can't actually do legally, I'm not sure why your response was so ***y, just sayin...

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I think the question of "do you want a flu shot?" is poorly framed. How about "have you had your flu shot this year? We administer them free of charge if you are eligible."

I had a similar experience 2 years ago. We were holding small drop-in clinics to administer Hepatitis A vaccines, plus we also had some DTaP to offer. One lady got 3 DTaP shots in 6 months, because each time she showed up she insisted she hadn't had a tetorifice shot in 10 years. Most locations didn't have internet access so we couldn't check the online registry.

Ow, 3 tetorifice shots in 6 months. 

[Emergent, RN]

Some folks like to argue and take life too seriously ?

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

21 hours ago, JKL33 said:

All specific screening recommendations that are inappropriately made universal (screen every patient rather than the intended population).

I live in New England. We fill out a Zika (the tropical disease) screening form on every female patient. It was started when the concerns about microcephaly came to light. And I say “fill out” rather than “screen” because that is what we are doing.

[Guest 1152923]

On 7/10/2021 at 7:33 PM, Emergent said:

(But may have contributed to a few deaths by sucking time and energy from us)

I'll name a few:

1) Care Plans

2) Charting pain scales before and after meds

3) Laminating paper bulletins 

Emergent, I second your entry for Nursing Care Plans.  In my humble opinion, care plans were developed by nursing academecians who hadn't cared for a patient in thirty years.  I find them completely superfluous, a complete waste of valuable time; they don't inform care and NO ONE uses them.  The same for nursing theories; Orem, yes, the rest; esoteric gobbledykook!

 

 

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

Toss up between Nursing Diagnosis and Relentless Care Plans

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

In general…..the obsession of documentation over actually taking care of patients. My favorite line when I didn’t document something stupid….”but you didn’t document the volume of an incentive spirometer (or insert some other stupid thing here)!”…..to which I reply - “but I took care of my patients. They were all safe, alive, stable and well upon discharge, correct?”…..and this is where I usually either don’t get a reply or stupid reply……

 

sigh….

[Davey Do]

At Wrongway Regional Medical Center, all psych Patients were to be issued a pair of purple scrubs for the duration of their hospital stay.

No psych patient was to be discharged with their belongings in a plastic bag with the Wrongway logo upon it. "We don't want people in the community knowing that they were a psych patient!" the Director stated.

 

 

[Ioreth, BSN, RN]

That critical lab or imaging results has to be reported to the RN who then has to relay it to the physician.
 

My hospital uses EPIC, which is customized to each individual hospital. Why can't we have these results pop up like an action alert on the patient's chart for the RN and send a secure text to the physician? I may have my hands full of poop and not be able to pass it on in a timely manner.

[Ioreth, BSN, RN]

Oooh another!

Parking regulations!!

Day shift must pay to park on campus or take a shuttle bus from the commuter lot. Night shift has "free" parking, but with ridiculous limitation on where, and they must be out by 0700 or get ticketed. Shift officially ends at 0730 and you can be sure that the meter maids are already roaming the lot allowed for noc shift use. Tickets are automatically docked from the paycheck, and 3 tickets are grounds for termination regardless of other preformance.

[Ioreth, BSN, RN]

One more!

Physicians must put in an order for a CPAP, and the patient cannot use their own device but must use a hospital-provided device (policy in place long before COVID). 

If the patient has a dx of OSA and has used a CPAP for years, we have to get a verbal or written order from the physician. Patients also hate that we can't use their own CPAP that their surgeon or intake told them to bring.  Would love to see a policy that CPAP use for known OSA is a nurse-driven protocol. Most of noc shift will put the order as a verbal and not ever call the physician, but this is less than legal per policy.

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

14 minutes ago, Ioreth said:

Oooh another!

Parking regulations!!

Day shift must pay to park on campus or take a shuttle bus from the commuter lot. Night shift has "free" parking, but with ridiculous limitation on where, and they must be out by 0700 or get ticketed. Shift officially ends at 0730 and you can be sure that the meter maids are already roaming the lot allowed for noc shift use. Tickets are automatically docked from the paycheck, and 3 tickets are grounds for termination regardless of other preformance.

That's freaking ridiculous.